Restoring a Berkeley 12JG Jet Boat Pump with a Fresh Paint Job

I wanted to take you through the steps that I took to refresh, and repaint my Berkeley 12JG Jet Drive, getting it looking better than it did new. This 12JG was a spare pump that came with the boat when we purchased it. The boat has had a Dominator 12S pump installed in it for the last 30 years. The Dominator pump has an aluminum impeller and the Berkeley had a stainless impeller already installed. We had recently removed the mildly build 396 Big Block Chevy from the boat and installed a 625hp 496 BBC. At this HP level we knew that the wise choice would be to swap the pumps, and get the Berkeley in the boat with the stronger stainless impeller. Before we put the Berkeley pump in the boat we sent it off to CP Performance and had them give the pump a full rebuild. The pump was previously used for racing and has already had a lot of detail work done to it. CP was able to get it rebuilt with new bearings, wear ring, and seals. The old shaft was found to be twisted so it was replaced with a new 17-4 shaft. Now CP Performance can take care of your rebuild, but they are not able to repaint or re-powder coat the parts. Now before I installed the pump back into my 1979 Centurion I wanted to get it looking like new. Since CP Performance was not able to address the cosmetics of the pump I needed to address that on my own. The old powder coating was littered with chips, stains gouges and scratches. It was just beat up from the years. I had considered getting it powder coated, but after much internal debate I decided to repaint it myself. Now the casting quality of these parts was not great from the factory. So I sanded and smoothed out any blemishes with 80 grit. I then applied an epoxy primer on any area that was exposed bare metal. I then applied an automotive 4-1 high build primer. This will allow to me fill the big imperfections in the casting and address the chips in the power coating. By applying this primer I will be able to sand it back down and give all the parts a rounder, smoother cast look. Once I had all the parts sanded down I attempted to apply the orange stenciling paint for the "Berkeley" details. But it did not work to plan. The orange paint was getting on the white single stage paint of the base metal, and when I would remove it it eventually damaged the white. So I repainted the parts and applied one coat of clear coat. I then was able to stencil the orange and not effect the rest of the paint. Once the stenciling was done I applied a few coats of clear to the remaining parts. Follow me on Instagram:   / _autotechnick_   #jetboat #cpperformance #powerboat #speedboating #jetboatperformance #hotboats #flatbottomboat #socaljetboats #hotboat #berkeleyjet #dominatorjet #centurion #riverboat #speedboat #autotechnick