Sandblasting yourself, why would you do it?

I like skidmarks idea of renting a heavy duty compressor...and plan ahead to do all your blasting at once!

 

breathe-cool II fresh air supply by turbineproducts. Anyone use this and would it be recommended for a hobbyist sandblasting the occasional frame?

 

Wow, I wish we had one of those places here that let you use their equipment to do your blasting. What a great idea.

As it is, we have to do ours in our parking lot and the cleanup after is the worst part. But if we take our stuff to a professional it rusts before we can get it back home to prime it due to the high humidity in Florida. So it is just better to do it ourselves and prime it right away.

Don

And yes, my Son did wear a mask and gloves, just took them off for the picture.

 

Why?...........sometimes its the magic of watching the newness appear......the transformation.......the idea that you are accomplishing one of the steps towards your goal........sure its dirty, nasty, and the cleanup sucks.......but I think the time spent is worth it once it is behind you......sure the most sensible way is to sub it out......pay the money.....no mess. This type of build can be done for the whole car........I love it when the guy has a finished car that had the engine built by the best shop......the body and paint to the top gun........interior done by another.......and......claims...."I did it all myself".........and thats really ok too if you can afford that and it is what you want.........I just have never went that route...... might be the smart move though.........

 

Sand blasting is kind of pain,although when you finish and look at the results its pretty cool..My 51 F1 cab was probally the hardest part but still seeing the before and after it worth doing it myself.I am out in the country so I blast out on the side yard put on my gear and go for it.I have a small portable 100lb unit so it takes a little longer to fill the bunker with sand.But i am not in a race so there you go. I just wish I could be finished by the Round Up but thats not going to happen.May be 2013.HA HA

 

Facing this myself right now. I have managed to pick up a really good, hard to find set of stock, smooth style,early rims for my car. Way nicer than the slightly later rims currently fitted. However right now i don't have £35 per wheel to get them blasted. I do have time though. As i'm putting new WWW and new modded hubcaps i need to save all i can. Major chunk of my budget gone.
I'll do what i've done in the past, hit them with paint stripper and wire brush etc them down to bare metal. I have a small sandblaster to do the tricky bits that works fine. Basically a big bucket of 60/80 grit, pick-up tube and gun. Done outside, on a big tarp making one hell of a mess and no doudt upsetting someone.
Fact is i actually enjoy stuff like this and get alot of satisfaction from shitty jobs. Crazy thing is after a good couple of full days spent messing with these rims ,only 2-3" of rim actually shows by the time i have trim rings and caps on so who'll notice anyhow! Must be mad

 

I have a blast cab for small parts, I sub out big parts to the local sandblaster/powdercoater.

 

cause its fun/

 

Our old pot & our new one that just arrived! Can't wait to try it!

 

Don,
Eastwood makes a product called "Metal Wash" that will work as a degreaser/metal prep and keeps the metal from flash rusting for up to 3 weeks. I own a powder coat shop and we have used this product and works great! We try and do as much "in house" blasting as possible to cut down on the cost of the blasting from out sourcing it. We have a cabinet that we do most of our blasting in, if its to big I have a buddy that runs a soda/sandblasting operation that we take the parts to and he's very reasonable! Leon...........

 

I do it so that I can do only as nuch as I need. It's not economically reasonable with 80# silica at $8.50/ bag. I have a high flow regulater so that I can cut pressure to as low as 45 psig on body and fenders. I have gone through at least 30 bags so far and still have some to do on the frame, but the body is 90 % done.

 

I love the idea of sandblasting, I just don't like sandblasting. When I was 18, I sandblasted my whole 1948 Diamond T using a Sears non-pressure pot and an underpowered compressor. It took me about about a week to do the whole truck. For protection, I wore a Vietnam era gas mask.
I don't care to ever do it again...even with better equipment. It was messy, and nasty...and it sucked.

 

When I blasted the frame of my 48 coupe, I used a blaster and compressor of a friend. I dragged the frame 40 miles to his Dad's farm where the equipment was, bought black beauty, bought gas for the compressor, and bought beer and sandwiches for my son, my friend, and a couple more people hanging around. I think it cost me about $150 ....I could have had the frame blasted for $100 10 miles from home........but that wouldn't have been as much fun.

 

in NY its expensive but I hooked up with a cool guy who dos choppers and he has a booth for blasting large enough for a full frame. best part he can powdercoat on premise which is great

 

I don't usually farm much work out but had to on this occasion, too big a job to hand strip and too expensive to dip so I took my '46 to a friend's property where I paid $600 to have the whole car done properly. IMHO it was money well spent, this fellow knew exactly what he was doing and did no damage whatsoever. He had all the right equipment and knew his stuff and just kept moving around so no heat was generated and panels weren't damaged. When done I rolled body and panels into spray booth and went over everything with scotch bright discs before everything was 2pak etch primed, another $200. Been that way now for years. I just do one panel at a time and only have the body left.