[Steve Petzer]

I have just bought a new house that has a 2 1/2 car garage. My 1969 SS that has been in storage for the last 11 months will now be moved there to start restoration. What is a good size air compressor that will do the job, i.e. remove rusty bolts, lugs, and other things. I prefer 115 volt. Should a 3, 4, or 5 HP air compressor do the job and what size tank? What kind of price am I looking at and what other incidentals should I look into buying to get started?

Thanks for the help, Steve

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[Harvey]

Steve,
I have a Coleman 4 HP with 13 gal tank These units are about $400 up here in Canada. I bought mine used (1 year old) and paid $175.00. Air is a great way to go. I have a 1/2" impact, 3/8" butterfly, air chisel and a sprayer and this unit works great with all of them. However, it doesn't put out enough air for sandblasting so if this is important get more HP than 4 and also a bigger tank.
Harvey

 

[Tom Mobley]

If you really want to do anything with air, get a 5 horse with a big tank. I did, went to the trouble to wire a 220 outlet myself, glad I did. What a blessing. Go with 220, any motor bigger than one horse needs 220. I recommend avoiding the the units advertised as "oiless" there seems to durability problems. You'll be amazed at how much you'll use this thing. All your neighbors will be owing you favors like mine do. They don't say a word if I need to fire up a car with open exhaust for awhile.

Tom

 

[DZAUTO]

I have a 5hp, 60gal upright, 220v. Sits in the corner of the garage out of the way. Like Tom said, you need a 220v unit, and like Harvey said, you need the big tank for sand blasting. I bought and I still see this type compressor priced around $350 all the time.
You will also need a presure regulator, a water seperator, lots of hose and connectors. You will start out with enough hose to reach around the garage and end up with enough to reach out to the street so that you can air up a tire on a car out at the curb. So just go ahead and get 200ft of hose. I now have a lot of 1/2 pipe with air connectors around the garage. It's never enough once you get a nice compressor. When I bought my compressor, it was attached to a wood base, kind of like a pallet, inside a big box. I left the wood base bolted on. I can't live without it now.

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[Dave Flanagan]

I got a 5Hp 20gal. upright from Sears it comes 120V and you can change it to 240V. It's oil-less and the parts are low in $ to rebuild and it's easy. With oil-less you don't need to worry about oil in your paint. I also do wood working and I don't want to get oil on the wood (no quicker way to kill a project), also with a water separator & filter I will only get water @ the end if it's 95deg. and 95% humidity. You will find your self getting all the tools and gadgets as you will use it for every thing.

 

[BillK]

Steve,
Bigger is better if you have the room for it. There is one disadvantege to the larger compressors though, if you just need to fire it up to put some air in a tire or something small, they take a while to get up to pressure because they are filling such a large tank. You may want to ask around and see what others have that you can listen to. One of my guys just bought a new Sears and it is so noisy he is thinking of returning it. It is one of the oil-less ones. If you are interested, I have an older 5 HP one at the shop I want to get rid of. The only problem is that it is three phase so you would have to put a new motor on it. The price is right and it is very quiet. E-mail me for details and price.

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Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

1971 Heavy Chevy - original owner
Team Chevelle #100

 

[JeffK]

I had a Sears 3.5hp/15gal portable compressor for about 4 years that works OK if you just use an impact gun or ratchet on occasion. But when I built the blast cabinet, there's no way that thing would keep up. So I sold it, and bought a 5hp/60gal oil-less from Sears. It's worked great so-far, but it is noisy. I've installed it in the back corner of my shop, so I'm usually always 20ft away when it's running. So the noise in not that bad. I also ran a dedicated 20amp/220volt circuit just for the compressor.

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JeffK ACES #01510
Team Chevelle Gold #72
[email protected]