Follow-up from my previous posts. I went ahead and got a portable pressurized blaster on e-bay. 10 gallon, 40 lb, nice unit for $80.00 with shipping. Bought a good particle respirator, gowned up totally and began the process of blasting the underside on the car - it's up on jack stands, frame on. After 5 minutes,WHAT A STINKING MESS!!!!!!!!! :eek: I new there would be sand everywhere, but oh my goodness...it is EVERYWHERE!!!!!! I gave up after 10 minutes...couldn't see a thing with the dust, and the mast kept fogging up....a complete disaster in that regard. I do not recommend at all anyone trying tho blast the underside on their ride in the garage, as a frame on, up on stands....brutal.

Fortunately, the blaster works perfect with my 5 hp 20 gallon compressor, no problems. graemlins/hurray.gif And I was able to blast a number of individual pieces outside...though again , the sand is everywhere. It's great as a portable piece unit...but not the frame with it on the car.

I went out and purchased a 2600 psi 5 hp power washer at Lowes...great addition. As recommended in other posts, sprayed down the underside with oven cleaner, let soak, and then power washed...worked great!!!!!! :D

I'll let dry throughly for the week, and then do some spot clean up next week prior to the paint.

Let me get this right...you sandblasted your car INSIDE your garage???

Thanks for assuring me that paying the media blaster to clean my parts was the right call...

Thank you for doing it before I did!!

Actually I came to the conclusion that it would just be too messy. I'm on a pretty careful budget with my car, but I decided to call up a local guy to find out what blasting would cost. They charge $100/hour to media blast. Not sure if that's good or bad, but I know it'll be better than coating my garage (or back alley) in desert camo.

Pics??

Lyle

Oven Cleaner. Damn! NOW you tell me!!!

I sand blasted the underside of my car IN my garage.(detatched) Actually used Black Beauty.Full respirator and a few fans in the door. Used the shop vac to suck up the media.Screened it and reused it several times. I cleaned the garage out thoroughly when i was finished but it was never the same. I'm sure the guy who bought my house was wondering about all the black dust in the garage.Never again.

Been there, done that, even lined the garage with clear plastic. Never again, what a fricken mess. the walls turned black. Stupid, stupid stupid. I seen a shop use it's spraybooth for blasting in the middle of winter- what a mistake! Blast outside or hire it out IMO.

I did all my blasting outside in the summer. Did everything way out back. Ran 150' of air hose so got the blasting site 50 yards from the house. Used strained play sand, and let it fly. Even at that it was messy. Depending on which way the breeze was blowing, the sand dust would travel. Had to make sure the windows in the back of the house were closed as well as any car windows. THe sand dust just seemed to float.

Well I am glad to see others had the same fun filled experience as me!! :D As my previous post noted...it was frame on...with the front and rear suspension completely off, hence I couldn't wheel it to someone to have them blast it.

Though again, the pressurized blaster worked great for individual parts, highly recommended, as long as I was outside...and a pressure washer sure did the trick.

You're kidding right, you didn't really attempt to use a sand blaster inside your garage did you? graemlins/clonk.gif

Yes sir I did....fortunately, I have a separate third bay for the ride and I cleaned it all out before blasting. Actually did a search and read a number of members saying it can be done and has been done!!

I did it too. I hung plastic from the rockers which basically enclosed the undercarriage. I had a huge mess under the car but the rest of the garage stayed pretty clean. Maybe in the future I'll tell about painting everything in my garage (2 car attached with a pole in the middle). Everything has a nice primer and black fog on it. I mean everything!!

I blasted my frame in the garage. At first it made a big mess with just a tarp around it but then I built a little shelter with 2x2s and plastic sheeting. That helped a lot except the dust still got out a little where my door was. I will never blast in the garage again though as it took weeks to clean off all the shelves and boxes, and 4-wheelers, and dads boat with the cover, and snowmobiles, the walls, the ceiling, did I mention dads boat. But most of the dust was from our first efforts blasting. The plastic encloser really helped a lot.

I can't imagine that. You're a brave guy, or an ambitious one. I do all my blasting out on the gravel drive. The sand enhances the drive. I can't imagine trying to clean the sand out of a garage after blasting in there. With all the tools, benches, parts, etc. in my garage and workshop I wouldn't even consider it. How much time did it take you to clean that mess up? I'm worried that you're going to find sand in your primmer and paint on anything you spray in there for years. No matter how much you clean or think you have sand seems to hide out in the smallest cracks and then do a kamikaze into your paint when you least expect it. :eek:

Originally posted by drielly:
Yes sir I did....fortunately, I have a separate third bay for the ride and I cleaned it all out before blasting. Actually did a search and read a number of members saying it can be done and has been done!!

i just did all this this past summer,went and bought a harbor freight sandblaster 110 lb unit.
started with small parts outside. blaster was a little tricky but i learned how to adjust the air valves to keep the sand coming.

thought it worked pretty good so i decied to do my frame. took the frame outside next to the woods
ran about 75 ft of air line. well i got it done but let me tell you,it took 6hrs and 1000lbs of sand. it was not a windy day and when i looked up there was a huge cloud of dust floating right over my neibors house. lucky i got no complaints.

mabe they wernt home. i did not try to recover the sand,what a mess. the thing is,the sandblaster only wanted 150.00 to do the job.

the next was the underside of the body. the first thing i did was to lay tarps down ,i made a raised box to catch the sand.

i got under the car and blasted the underbody,took abuot 4 hrs ,had to refill about 6 times. i straind the sand each time. this process was alot better than the frame. i was able to contain most of the sand,but it was still messy.

imo sandblasting works great for small parts but for big jobs you would be better off taking to a sandblaster. that sand gets in everything.

Professor..yes, I am ambititious...as with most of us on this site as I have learned. Just picked up the ride this past spring and check in on the TC site almost daily for insight. I feel if I don't give something a try, I'll never know if I could have done it, while being able to proudly profess I did the work myself, not someone else. If it had been a complete frame off, I would have done it outside, or brought it to someone...but oh well, I know better now. As it is, the pressurized blaster is still a great addition for individual parts.

If I had to do it again I would but I would have built my "plastic shelter" outside and sand blasted it. The big thing with sand blasting is having a good air compressor. I have a 5horse 30 gal and it ran the whole time

wow, you guys make me appreciate the industrial (much larger than car sized) blasting booth at work. not to mention the blasting cabinet that is large enough for just about any car part. thanks for making me feel good about work!

This has got to be one of the funnest post I have read in a while! :D

Humor is the splice of life...most of us go to work every day and pee and moan unitl we come home...then we get to play with or work on our rides, and everything is good again...though at times a complete MESS!!!

Laugh and smell the roses...life is too short.

Originally posted by drielly:
Humor is the splice of life...most of us go to work every day and pee and moan unitl we come home...then we get to play with or work on our rides, and everything is good again...though at times a complete MESS!!!

Laugh and smell the roses...life is too short. Absolutely, And please I didn't mean to offend you, It's just when I read your description I got quite the mental imagine that had me rolling. Belive me I can relate.
smile.gif

Anyways, it sounded like you got the job done! Your car looks very nice. Good job

Dan

Dan....apologies....comment wasn't directed at you at all...just me trying to get "poetic". Everyone I "meet" on this site are truly down to earth folks with all good intentions...I sometimes can't beleive the generosity of so many TC'ers....thanks for your comments.

David

Wow! This is a funny thread that I can relate to.

My first and only large scale sand blasting experience was enough to tell me never to attempt it again. My first car, a 66 SS...I sandblasted the entire exterior. Despite my best efforts, I had a sandstorm in my car every time I drove with the windows down. I think it took about a year before all the sand was gone!

Chemicals for me from now on!

Well even thow it looks like It will be a mess I am going to start my frame this weekend. Since I am healing from breaking my femur done I can't do any heavy lifting so I am making a plastic enclosure in my shop and will do the frame in sections. I may regret it but I have done a lot of wood working in the past and say dust gets every where also. No shop or garage should be with out a yard blower. (if you live in the city clean at night so your neibors don't see the cloud) DO this at least twice after leting the dust settle. Does a great job but looks like a nuke cloud. Oh yea put on your resporator. I will let you know how it goes

Gary
64 SS in 10,000 Pieces
98 Sportster Custom
Vortec powered Jeep

Hey all, I did my front frame horns/cowl IN my garage. What I did do was make a "tent" with 2x4's and CANVAS painter's tarps around and under the area (basically a booth). When it was all said & done I spent less time cleaning up sand in the garage than I did getting out of MY cracks and orifices!

that's to much information!!!!!
Gary

Sandblasting has got to be the most disgusting, but effective way to clean stuff. My whole car was blasted, long before I bought it, must be 10-15 years now. Still find (and clean out) a layer of sand in the trunk everytime I open it.

I blasted my wifes 66 on my parents driveway. I actually did 2 jobs that day. Stripped the car and cleaned their concrete driveway while doing it. It is one of the most unfavorable jobs I have done to the car but it removes everything and then some. 100 per hour to media blast will probably calculate to 1000.00 when they are done or even more but if this was only a one time deal for you, that may be the way to go.

John Weaver

for anyone that planes on doing a blasting job at home...buy a portable garage(there cheap) and three house window fans and three forced hot air (heat) filters
fans suck all dust and filters stop dust from going all over n'hood... a heavy tarp for a floor so you can get(reuse) sand or whatever ..and your in bizness...the better the fans the better the dust removal... a blow gun can clean filters after use for another day...
+ portable garage makes a nice spray booth for most of the parts.... and u can sell garage to buddy after your done.... or not.. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/birt/misc009.jpg

That plastic tarp enclosure looks like a death trap IMO, you need good ventilation when doing any blasting or paint work, respirators can only do so much. JMO

Bob beat me to it...

Does air move in or out of that enclosure? It looks like the econo-sized version of a crate!

Or a coffin!! ;)

I guess I wasn't thinkin much when I did it. If it wasn't so cold out a fan blowing the air outside would have worked better.A friend made a thing like this after but used a fan and said it worked good. I R trYin

My son and I did his frame in our driveway. My neigbors thought that we were making a beach !!!

It was a lot of fun but would never do it in the garage