sand blasting????????

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you

you

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dutchess county, new york
have my scamp stripped down to the bare bones and ready to start the body work. wana start with a clean slate and take her down to the bare metal. have been plannin on taken it to a local media blaster(the only one around) but when i talked 2 him on the phone he couldnt even give me a rough estimate on a price and was like "just drop it off and it'll be done in a few weeks" Anyway wasnt to impressed with that so im thinkin bout renting a sand blaster and doin it myself. ive heard sand blasting gets too hot and can warp the sheet metal. but if thats the case what did they do before all this other media got popular. has anyone done it themselves or have any advise. thanks!!
 
You can sandblast without warpin the metal. You have to have the pressure right and keep moving to avoid the heat buildup. I know guys that do cars all the time without warping, on the other hand you get the wrong guy like I did once and end up with junk. I have a small pressure blast setup that works nicely, runs on about 90psi..
 
great thanks. the blaster id be renting is an industrial one that runs off a tow behind compressor with like 200 psi hopefully i can adjust the pressure. my shop compressor cant keep up with the small bucket sand blaster my work has.
 
I bought a small sandblaster (holds about 40 lbs)at a place called Harbor Freight. I attached it to my compressor and blasted everything. I used Black Beauty (kinda like a welding slag) sand and plastic beads. It really can save you a lot of money. I blasted the inside shell of my 67 Dart with the black beauty. You might check around locally where sandblast media is sold and ask what they would recommend for the body. You will be a lot happier if you do it yourself.
 
From what I hear soda blast is the best. Not sure if you can just change tips on a standard sand blaster and use soda.
Not to mention you you don't have all the sand to clean out. I remember reading in hot rod (long time ago) they had to tape seams at drag strip from sand coming out on hard launch.
 
Warbird said:
From what I hear soda blast is the best. Not sure if you can just change tips on a standard sand blaster and use soda.
Not to mention you you don't have all the sand to clean out. I remember reading in hot rod (long time ago) they had to tape seams at drag strip from sand coming out on hard launch.
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Soda does a great job of removing paint but you will still need sand to blast any rusty areas. You also have to neutralize the metal after soda blasting. It leaves a film on the surface that needs to be removed for paint to stick.
And it's just as messy!
 
I would absolutely not sandblast the whole car. I've had a few friends who had it done on muscle cars and hot rod bodies by pros who said they knew how to do it without warping, all with negative results. Media blasting is so popular now for that very reason its safe but doesn't remove rust very well, and if you are a do it yourselfer I have a couple of suggestions. There are some fairly easy ways to remove paint off large panels either with a commercial paint stripper or with a disc called Rapid Strip (made by Norton)that goes on an angle grinder and removes the old paint and bondo but doesn't grind through the metal. For small curvy areas with nooks and crannys and for rust you can sand blast since these areas (door pillars/edges of doors/inside edges of wheel wells etc.) have more strength in them and are not prone to warpage. Panel warpage from sand blasting is not just from heat buildup but is from the peening action of the sand particles. Imagine beating on a piece of sheet sheet metal with thousands of tiny hammers, the panel actually stretches causing the warpage. BTW I am not a bodyman and my experience is from doing my share of projects over the years, I purchased a pressure tank style offshore sandblaster with 2 compressors connected with a T fitting to get enough air flow for the blaster, works pretty damn good. Invested in some inexpensive equipment and invested the time and still have the equipment, just my 2 cents. Kev
 
thanks guys for all the info. i need to replace the quarters and have the fenders off if i was to remove the doors you think the rest of the car could handle blasting? thanks
 
a wire brush on a 4 inch high speed grinder is a very credible metal cleaner along with some heat and a putty knife for tar and maybe a small sand blaster for bad spots can do a good job. its a lot of work and time but cheap and it works.
 
dave273dart said:
I bought a small sandblaster (holds about 40 lbs)at a place called Harbor Freight. I attached it to my compressor and blasted everything. I used Black Beauty (kinda like a welding slag) sand and plastic beads. It really can save you a lot of money. I blasted the inside shell of my 67 Dart with the black beauty. You might check around locally where sandblast media is sold and ask what they would recommend for the body. You will be a lot happier if you do it yourself.
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I was thinking about doing the same thing. How big an air compressor are you using? I bought my compressor from Harbor Frieght also.
 
you said:
thanks guys for all the info. i need to replace the quarters and have the fenders off if i was to remove the doors you think the rest of the car could handle blasting? thanks
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No roof / hood or trunk lid for blasting and I don't think I would even take a chance on the cowl. Floors, A and B posts / rockers / anywhere inside except painted dash area is no problem. Insides of doors and painted dash area can be done with fine grit glass bead fanning constantly from a farther distance. Where I am the blasting sand has become just about like asbestos, nobody wants to carry it anymore, I have been buying a product made of crushed glass and there is no dust from it and it works great. The sand blaster I have sounds like the one you guys down south can get at harbor freight and I run mine with a stand up 3 cyl 18 cfm compressor, you have to wait once in a while for the air to catch up but it's not too bad. Kev
 
To increase the volume add any extra air tanks that you have laying around using Tees and air hoses.
Many years ago I had a five horse two stage compressor with a 20 gallon tank. A friend gave me a 80 gallon tank from a compressor that was wore out. I plumbed it in with 3/4 galvanized pipe about 60 feet from the compressor and sand blasted with seldom stopping for it to catch up.
It also worked great for painting and I got very little water if any out the hose since the air had cooled a lot. I also installed a solenoid controlled timer to automatically bleed off the tank every four hours.
 
a steam trap works great for automaticly draining the water from a tank on an as needed bases without any wires
 
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