Sand Blasting '31 Coupe

there are chemicals for converting or killing rust. as budd said scotch brite pads (i use red on bare metal) and a good naval jelly will get rid of the rust you can get to. just remember to neutralize chemical according to manufacture label to avoid adhesion problems down the road.

 

I'm probably swimming upstream here.........but I've been blasting old car sheetmetal for years with silica sand. I have a pressure pot blaster set at about 110 psi. Have never warped anything except a Camaro hood with about an inch of paint on it. I do all my own bodywork after blasting, so I would know if it warped. I have lots of room to blast and do not recover the sand.....not saying this will work for everyone, but it is possible to do. I don't see a problem using sand if you use common sense.........wear a respirator and goggles...my 2 cents

 

side note rmr&c, where are you getting your silica? i love the stuff too and use it to etch steel after soda blasting, but have recently been shot down when i try to order it. they say it is no longer legal to sell, do i need to tell them i'm using it for something else? i've thought about swimming pool filters aren't they full of silica? i could say i'm a pool cleaner.

 

The way I understand it the plastic media wont remove heavy rust and filler, a more aggressive media(abrasive) must be used. The shop I use say they use a combination of the two. Plastic on everything then they go back over the bad spots with an abrasive media. I don't really know if this is common but their work comes out great. They charge $120/hr with no minimums.

 

customs&color, you are right neither soda or plastic media are very effective at removing rust (down in the pits) where you really need it killed. i use soda or plastic followed by an etching with silica sand. we get great results, lower cost stripping of paints and fillers and still get excellent adhesion of primer/surfacer. i only charge a minimum when customers bring a trailer load of parts like a disassembled car. i have to figure out how to hold items like fenders or hood sides without causing any damage, this takes time.

 

I get my sand from the local masonry supply place. They have stacks of it in 3 or 4 grits....I use 50 or 70 grit, about $7.00 a bag (100 lbs). Stuff comes from Idaho somewhere.......

 

Justin I have a better idea. SELL your coupe to me and you won't have to worry about having it blasted. Seriously I got my coupe bedia blasted inside and out. The guy's name is Blane his shop is on Niagara just off Genesee St. He doesn't do the blasting there, he takes the parts to another location and does the blasting. He knows what he is doing also. Like someone said it is easy to warp the metal if you don't know what you are doing. Good luck PINCHER

 

haha I just sold my '30 coupe..I think I'll hang on to this '31 for awhile, but yeah I'll try and stop out there tomorrow if I have time..thanks for the info, really appreciate it!

 

i dont know what you all are talking about with sand....... i paid 150 to have my entire coupe and frame sand blasted....... took the guy about an hour, i watched him do it too...... not a single panel was warped blown through or in any shape way or form harmed.......

 

That is because the guy who did it knows what he is doing. Please post who it is, so others will know, and can utilize him.

 

Wow! I just purchased my first "real" pressurized 40# blaster to do my current project some day and just reading this post scared the crap out of me and reminded me about something I had also learned along time ago.

Quick Story!
I remember doing some blasting in my younger days. I had all the right gear.....so I thought! except one thing I didnt know much about different respirators and the one I had probably wasnt the correct one to use. I remember it not being very effective when I was using it in terms of keep sand out of my nose.

It wasnt until a year or two later after that in a work related class that I realized how little protection the wrong respirator could offer. Anyway, In that class I remember we had a few different trial runs with a couple of different respirators and in most cases none of us knew what the hell we were doing -that was lesson number one. Coughing, almost always in every trial run the "test gas" got right past the filtered vents and we'd choke!

So, Im not saying to run away from your sand blasting projects but I'll say this, don't cut corners to save a buck the first time around. Just get the right equip. to begin with if you plan on doing some blasting at home and remember health comes first or your car could possibly out live you. Theres no such thing as having to many tools.

 

The guy is in port huron, Mi by my gramps place....... he's got a shop set up near the old gt rail yards........ I dont have his business card on me but if anyone is in that area and needs/wants the info let me know and i can get his number and such for you!

 

I just had my bucket body and frame done yesterday in Central Illinois for $100 an hour. Took him 1 hr total, did a real good job. Saved me a TON of headache and mess. Real nice good ol boy. Pm me if you need info.

 

Just thinkin.....I should use my supplied air respirator for blasting, it uses compressed air instead of filters. D'oh!!, why didn't I think of that sooner?

 

Harbor freight has a sale this week. I think the 100lb pot is $100.Works great and holds a full 100lb bag of sand. Use 30 grit, works great. Be careful on flat panels, you WILL warp them. One problem though, is you will have a beach wherever you blast....I still do 2 months later...Watch out for sand silicosis. You must wear a respirator or face health issues down the road..Go for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I blasted my car in 4 hours. Did the dash, jambs, firewall and all the gard to get areas. I left the outer areas to strip mechanically with a DA.....Later

 

I found these guys during 2009 Autorama. They are located in SE Michigan and may be able to quote you.

http://stripitallblasting.com/contact.html

I was going to contact and take a look at their work before having them strip mine.

 

Don't waste your time or money buying small blasting equipment. Your risk of damaging panels goes up due to their smaller effective blast zone.

Automotive blasting is a process that requires massive amounts of patience. Being a rookie is your worst enemy because your eye is trained to see forward progress, which will cause you to focus on certain areas for too long. Everything is stacked against you in this case with the smaller units. You will have days, maybe even weeks into it and it still won't be as good as a professional who has a few hours into it. Not to mention a huge mess in your work space and in your ears.

Remember, good work isn't cheap and cheap work isn't good!

Those chiming in to say they had their frames or bodies blasted for 100 bucks should be worthless information to you. I would be willing to bet they missed multiple areas. Some of those areas maybe not that important, but some would definitely be crucial.

Find someone who specializes in automotive blasting. You'll be glad you did.

 

multiblast in montrose on 57 .worked there 10 years they use 120grit oxide get it done for about 300 bucks.. 1 810 639 6244

 

good info. it's scary to think how bad someone could really F up your ride if they don't know what they're doing with a blaster.

 

sight unseen, a guy quoted me 2grand. He is still waiting.

 

Blasting can "kill you later" and it can kill you now.

About a year ago a man I had known for a long time died "right now" when he severed his femoral artery when sandblasting.

He was working in a detached garage a few feet from his house where his wife was. He did not make it out the door.

Shit you think about will get your ass, and shit you forget about will get your ass too....

 

Have you tried DuPont Starblast? No silica in it. Doesn't fracture and dust like sand, so if you're recycling it, it gives consistent results for many passes thru your blaster. It gives a finer texture than sand, but perfect for primer.

I'm not sure how the current price is. We bought a 40,000 lb trailer load of it in 100# bags 10 or 12 yrs ago for about $3/bag. Sent our own tractor trailer to pick it up, so there would be hauling charges on top of that $3 otherwise. Back at that time, the Starblast was twice what we were paying for crushed granite blasting sand in similar quantities. Never have bought another bag of sand since then, and wouldn't use it if somebody gave it to me.

I've never used it, but there's another blast media that will give similar results, that's made from crushed olivine. Olivine is a mineral that comes out of the ground just like sand. Can't remember the trade name on the product but any blast media supplier would know what it is. The Starblast is also a mineral product called staurolite. Its mainly mined in Florida. Both products are way more affordable than any sort of man-made media.

All said, I'd also strongly recommend the OP get someone that knows what they're doing for the blasting. We've got a couple Clemco blasters and all the equipment to go with them, as well as compressors up to 1600 cfm, from the time when we were in the contracting business. I've blasted car frames, rear end housings, truck wheels and so forth for various projects, but there's no way in hell I'd attack a car body unless I'd first gone thru the full drill on 2 or 3 junkers to get the technique down.

One big problem with trying to blast a body with a small rig is that they don't have nozzles with the right shape. They're all straight bore, which tends to separate the bulk of the media from the airstream. A venturi nozzle gives a very even distribution of the blast media across the air pattern, which greatly reduces the time required to blast a given part using otherwise identical equipment and air pressures. The more time you have to spend with sand pounding the metal, the greater the chance of warping. Full venturi type nozzles are usually made from cubic boron nitride, and pretty much last forever, but the nozzle itself costs upward of $1000, so its not something that's practical unless you're in the business.

 

Is that these guys?

Professional Paint Works
107 W Genesee Ave# 104
Saginaw, MI 48602-5507
(989) 752-4030

Thinking about getting the lower parts of my Falcon cleaned up so I can look into patching the rust holes...

-Dave