I lost the use of my friends sandblaster due to space issues at his house. I'm looking at a rental unit for $100 per day and wondering how many hours it would take to sandblast both sides of the entire truck? I just want to get a better idea of how much it may cost based on the daily rate.

Truck will be all taken apart, and everything will be set up so just looking for straight up blasting time.

Thanks
Mike

 

If it's a decent unit, I'd think one day should do it-2 days tops.

 

Depends on how set you are for blasting. What are you exactly blasting? If you're blasting sheet metal take your time. I'd plan on two days just so you don't get into a rush and wreck something. It took me almost and entire day to blast the inside and outside of a 8' box.

 

smaller pot, will take longer to refill over and over again, taking more time. Not a big enough compressor, will slow the process down, too.... as well as water in the lines. I'd say to be safe, I'd go two days like Bob said.

 

Hey Hkyswim,
Hmmm... It's an ugly job - I wouldn't recommend it for your driveway.
Somewhere far, far away... We had our's done with soda & it took 3 days of horrendous work. It cost us something around $1300 so you are saving some money but you are going to earn it.... Sand in every errr crevice you have.... Good luck over there.

I think the amount of time depends on what you find as well. Our truck was the bondo queen - depends on how you want to proceed when you hit those pieces.. (We ended up replacing every fender as there was just too much bondo - see pic).

Ben in Austin

 

Be careful, it is easy to stretch the sheet metal with a sandblaster, especially if you try to go fast, the metal gets hot. What are you going to use for blasting media? If you actually use sand (not recommended) you need a very good respirator you don't want silicosis. I think the media may cost you more than the rental unless you have a way to catch it and re use it.

When I did my 1960 I paid $2100 to have it soda blasted and it took a week for them to get everything clean inside and out, it was disassembled. The current car I am working on, I used ZipStrip to remove 95% and used a wire wheel and portable blasting unit to do the rest. The car is now almost completely naked (I am still working on the engine bay) and so far I have spend $150. I have been impressed with ZipStrip. I would estimate I have about 3 or 4 days total. I tried to do 1 quarter panel or door each evening after work.

Food for thought, good luck.

 

Thanks for the responses. Seems about two days of rental should do.

I tried the paint stripper gel on parts of the cab when I first got it but I just didn't like the waiting and scrapping much.

As far as the blasting media I was going to try the stuff from menards someone in another thread mentioned. It's not the sand but I can't recall the name right now.

It's gonna be a messy job but I need to get it done soon.

 

Too much pressure, wrong media, wrong blast angle can = destroyed sheet metal. You need to protect or prime the freshly blasted metal IMMEDIATELY without touching it with bare hands. Rust can/will start forming in a couple hours of air exposure. In the long run it may be more cost effective to have it done by a pro that blasts antique vehicles regularly.

 

I was reading though this tread and saw a lot of misinformation on sand blasting. I own and operate a sandblasting company, we also do mobile blasting. The key to sand blasting sheet medal regardless what it is, pressure and media selection is the key. Also we do a lot of old trucks and cars from steel to fiberglass. 95% of the time we wet blast cars/trucks for two reasons you don't have the heat as traditionally blasting give you which creates the warp hoods and fenders. It can be 100 degrees outside and when our media hits the steel its about 70 degrees not causing the friction where your heat comes from We also use a rust inhibitor which prevents flash rust up to 72 hours, as long as you not getting it wet again or rubbing your bare hands all over it. Some of the post were 100% right dry blasting will wrap the metal which will cause you a lot more work in the long run, plus dry blasting is dirty and nasty to clean up as the media carries a long ways. As far as pricing goes for the truck and frame, we just did a 48 Chevy step side a few weeks ago. The guy had it completely torn apart, it took us close to 20 hours to blast it to a SP10 (Milky White Medal) the cost at the end of the 2 days was 2400. Seems high but this guy owns and runs a profession car restoring garage, he was able to blow it out and go directly with primer on it.

My suggestion find your a mobile dustless blasting company in your area, they should be able to come in and knock it out for u without warping the medal in anyway, if they do warp they have their pressure to high or their stand off distance is to close. They should be able to use a 70/100 glass on it, along with a rust inhibitor. Also if you plan on doing any medal work, have them sandblast the areas above it or around it, sandblasting a area where your gone to cut and replace is a waste of time and ends up costing u more money, as most mobile blaster charge by the hour. Don't have them do parts that are gone to be replaced, I am asked all the time to do suspension parts that are not any good in the first place, the smaller the part the longer it will take. Remember every part has four or more. A C channel frame will take longer then a box frame as a C channel has 6 sides. Plus when you get you frame blasted, make sure you strip everything off of it, this also save time which saves u money. A good mobile dustless blasting company will be insured, if they are not taking before and after pictures you might want to send them packing. The key to saving money when you want something sand blasting done is your prep work, take all the chrome, glass, rubber seals and etc off the truck. The more things you leave on it the more time the sandblasters have to protect it from being blasting. If you strip the car down so there is nothing we as sandblasters have to take time to tape off and such, it is a major cost saving for the customer. Its all in the prep, if a car/truck is strip down when we show up, I drop $50 off per hour. We charge between $250 to $150 a hour when blasting, if you bring me something 100% striped down you get the lowest rate. Anyway if you got questions let me know.

One last thing never use coal based media on anything if you are gone to recoat it. Coal has oils in it and it presses into the medal, if may paint well, but done the road it may start bubbling or peeling. 70/100 glass is cheaper and will leave a 1 mil profile perfect for the first coat of primer.

www.GunnersMobileBlasting.com


Matt

 

A LONG time ago (1974) I rented the industrial gasoline powered 6 cylinder towable Compressor/ and its large pot sand blaster from a local rental place. I saw the city do their streets with a similar unit. I was 18. I used it and silicon media to blast a 1950 GMC 1/2 ton 5 window truck. It took me two FULL DAYS. I worked from 5am until dark both days no breaks for lunch etc. I learned on the job. I went slow so I wouldnt damage anything. It was very hard work. It was REALLY dirty. I ruined a watch that I put in a pocket for safe keeping. I was removing sand from my body for a week after that. I did this work on a friends back lot that was open in both directions. under the truck and surrounding it was a huge tarp to have the media fall onto. It was a bunch of work to metal treat the truck also to keep it from rusting. This truck had eleven coats of paint on it and the last one had been done with a brush so I had to sand blast it. It came out great. but it was nasty to do. Good luck.

 

Took me 6 hours just to do the lower portion of the firewall and bottom of the floor. Turned out great, but as others have said above, it's a messy, messy job (media everywhere, dust, what to do with the used material, etc.).

Jim

 

The only reason I blast my own stuff is because I'm cheap and never have the money to have someone else do it. I did have the entire cap of a panel truck done some years back. Blasted and epoxy primed for $600, worth every penny. That was about 15 years ago, I would think today it would be at least twice as much but still worth every penny.

 

You're certainly not going to make any friends with your neighbors if you live in anything but a wide open, rural setting, unless you have some way to contain the media, as in some type of booth. The sand storm will travel a long way.

 

I do mine on the farm, behind the cow yard fence by the silos. I don't need to clean up my mess when done. Nearest neighbor is three blocks away.

I did blast my '37 Buick in the parking lot of my shop in the industrial park on a Sunday when no one was around. Laid a large tarp out, blasted and cleaned up my mess before the end of the day. There were no cars in the adjoining parking lots. The van was pretty far away and didn't use a very larger blaster.

 

I have done my own media blasting for years. I like fine crushed glass. Important to me for reasonable time and safety are:
I. Lots of compressed air
2. A good pot. The regular often sold cheap pots like TIP are constantly plugging imho, btdt.
3. Supplied air feeding a good hood