Could anyone give me some hints for preparing sheet metal for sandblasting, then how to coat it properly afterwards so the rust will not return?
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A little background for ya...
I unfortunatly purchased a tailgate sight unseen and it has a ton of surface rust on it... There are no major bubbles, rust holes or flaking, just a lot of surface rust & pitting.

The main part i need to save is the back support part(i can get an aftermarket skin for it) and at the minimum i'd like to try and save that.

Any hints you guys can give would be great. I'm gonna take it to a local sandblasting shop on monday, so i'd like to have my ducks in a row first.

Thanks-
Ben

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Ben Rambow
My '69 El Camino (http://www.elcaminoclassics.com/code/rambow1.htm)
The El Camino Classics Club (http://www.elcaminoclassics.com)

Ben. The things I would like to say can be found on this http://www.si.hhs.nl/~rob/experience.html page of my website. Hope this helps a little.

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www.si.hhs.nl/~rob (http://www.si.hhs.nl/~rob)

Well, you might be stuck between a rock and hard place in a manner of speaking. Sandblasting with regular sand produces excellent results when cleaning up rust, but it will warp sheetmetal. Plastic media blasting is ideal for sheetmetal, but it's too soft to cut through rust. In your case, you're only dealing with surface rust and minor pitting. Depending on how deep the pitts are, plastic blasting could clean up the surrounding sheetmetal, but leave you with a surface of rust filled pitts.
Does this sandblaster specialize in automotive sheetmetal? If so, he should know what to do.
As for surface prep, use rubbing alcohol to clean up the blasting residue, followed by a good blast of compressed air. Then use a good etching primer to seal the surface, followed by sanding primer.

Thanks for the recomendations guys...

Unfortunatly- after actually getting the dumb thing home, and really going over it closely, it was completely gonzo.

The all the edges where the skin wrapped over the back support were rusted to the point of flaking off. The back peice itself, while only surface rust, was pitted so deeptly, after sandblasting only 1/2 the original metal would be left.
http://www.chevelles.com/forum/frown.gif

So looks like i got kinda screwed(kinda would be putting it mildly). I'm not going to bother with even trying to have it sandblasted. Redrum actually offrerd to let me use his setup for only the cost of sand- and that is still more than i'm willing to spend on this thing.

Anyway- So now i'm back to looking for a decent tailgate...

Thanks for the ideas though- i'll keep 'em for the next one.

Ok- since i have this stupid thing now- i figured i'd get you folks opinion....

Tailgate-1 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk1.jpg)
Tailgate-2 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk2.jpg)
Tailgate-3 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk3.jpg)
Tailgate-4 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk4.jpg)
Tailgate-5 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk5.jpg)
Tailgate-6 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk6.jpg)
Tailgate-7 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk7.jpg)
Tailgate-8 (http://www.chevelles.net/ecc/tailgate/ahsom69-junk8.jpg)

Try and save it, or junk it?

Skin is shot of course, those are easy enough to get repro- but what do you think about the back supported? Too far gone to sandblast back to solid, or worth a try?

I really appreciate you're thoughts, especially from folks who have delt with rust problems like this...

Thanks-
Ben

(no i won't go into how much i spent- but more than enough to buy a few burgers at mickey D's for a month or so...
:-(

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Ben Rambow
My '69 El Camino (http://www.elcaminoclassics.com/code/rambow1.htm)
The El Camino Classics Club (http://www.elcaminoclassics.com)

Ben... I would say "Deep Six It" cuz that is where it looks like it came from! Your original is much better than that. I would also get a second opinion on the ability to fix your old one. I know there are shops around that have repaired worse then that!

Live and learn huh?

Greg Kline
TC# 1064
'67 BB El Camino
'67 Chevelle SS