What all would I need to effectively sandblast my 51 ford pickup.
I would like to sandblast the frame first of all. The guy I bought the old truck from also did a crappy prime job and there is a lot of surface rust under the truck.

I want to make sure I buy the right things and I do not want to buy unnecessary things to do what I need to do.

I live in the country, so I do not want to drive back in forth towing things to get sandblasted. I rather do it myself if possible.

Also how damaging can sandblasting be. What should you not sandblast when it comes to the frame, body, suspension etc.

What are the other alternatives if you are not a proponent of sandblasting?

thanks for your help

 

I did my frame and body panels on my 55 myself, using a ‘harbor freight’ media blaster. With most of the 'home shop' type blasters, you shouldn’t have to worry about damage if you keep the pressure as low as possible (under 100 lbs.) and keep the nozzle around 45* to your work. The sheet metal on these older trucks is heavy enough that they don’t tend to be affected buy non-commercial blasting.

You will likely find that unless you have a two-stage compressor or a very large capacity single stage set up, you will be waiting a lot for you pump to catch up with your blaster. They require a lot of (dry) air. Buy yourself a couple of extra packs of the ceramic nozzles as they tend to get eaten up rather quickly. One other point that I would recommend is to take a pressure washer and a heavy duty degreaser agent and clean up everything first. Grease and grime are easier and more quickly removed this way than with a blaster.

This will be time consuming dirty work, I hope your up to it. I got my sand from Home Depot/Lowes stores, and the blaster from Harbor Freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34202

 

Good advice....

A couple more things though:

1. I wear a mask under the blasting hood along with goggles and ear plugs.

2. Make sure you can replace the plastic in the hood. Some of the cheaper hoods don't have replaceable viewing windows which makes it harder to see the more you blast.

2. Put a decent water trap between the blaster and air supply.

3. Keep it moving - do not linger in any one spot for any length of time.

 

A couple of more things still.

It will REALLY work your compressor hard - you could consider renting a compressor just for the sandblasting. As far as that goes you could rent the sandblaster and everything you need to see how it works and give you an idea of what you need to buy.

The worst part of sandblasting is that it's HARD work and is messy. The sand gets in everything and is almost impossible to get completely out. It will probably be haunting you after the job is all done.

An alternative is chemical stripping. Some areas have shops that specialize in it. You can take them your body parts, or even entire cabs and beds, and get them back clean, ready for body work. Really nice to work with. There aren't many chemical strippers around and it's costly due largely to EPA regs, but the last time I had it done (about 8 yrs ago) it seems to me it averaged $75 per panel. A whole cab or bed would be a few hundred, but worth considering when comparing a simple drop off and pickup to all the costs and work of sandblasting. Also the chemical method gets the hidden areas, like the insides of doors, unlike sandblasting. I don't know if they could chemically strip something as big as a frame.

If there's a place that chemically strips in your area, you could consider using them for some things and sandblasting others. (like your frame)

As was mentioned above - ear plugs and respirator, very important!!!

marc

 

Hmmm. Do they dip body parts in the chemicals or do the spray the body parts.

I might have to lean toward sand blasting. I live on 7 acres, I think I can find a corner of my "world" to sand blast.

A buddy of mine told me he did it and he is still cleaning sand to this day. I always wanted a beach in my backyard.

What would be considered a very good compressor if I don't rent. And since it taxes the compressor, do renters like renting their equipement for sandblasting?

 

Yes, it's a dipping process. Some of them may not have tanks big enough to do complete bodies or beds. Car parts may just be a small part of their business - many of them do industrial stripping that has nothing to do with cars.

Ingersoll - Rand is a good name. I'm sure there are many others. I'm really satisfied with my old Sandborn. (believe it or not - knock on wood)

I've rented several different types of things, and never seen a renter care what I did with it. The main reason they ask what you're doing is so they can set you up with what you need. Chances are they'll rent you a nice big compressor for sandblasting!

marc

 

who are generally the renters?

Home Depot, Lowes, Machine shops?????
What is generally the renting cost???

 

The place I rented from was was a 2 or 3 city, 10 or 15 location chain (called Art's Rental) that rents construction related equipment. Everything from concrete saws and hammer drills to the big trackhoes.

There's probably a similar, independent, construction rental place in a decent sized city near you. I don't think a national chain like Lowes would do something like that - a sandblasting job like that is not a common activity by the average homeowner!

Cost - you could probably rent a big compressor on a trailer, and a sandblaster, for $100 a day. (just a guess - it's been awhile for me)

marc

 

I guess renting a compressor on a trailer could assure me that I have enough power to sandblast. I've seen so many compressors in lowes, homedepot and Sears. Sears seem to have the largest. I just dont want to dump $700 plus on one project.

How much sand or sand like material would be enough to do a frame and body parts???

 

A lot! I would probably have 10 (100lb.) bags ready, and judge your future needs on how far it goes. You need silica sand (don't breath that dust - use a respirator - probably worse to breath than paint fumes)

I got a roll of 4 or 6 mil plastic and layed it down in my work area, and after blasting for awhile, swept the used sand up and ran it through again. I don't think the sandblaster company recommended that, but it didn't seem to hurt anything to do it once. When I tried to run the used sand back through more than once, it made an extra bad dust fog, because it was pulverized into powder, and the sandblaster tended to clog more.

Good luck, that era of Ford truck is my fav, probably because my first truck at age 14, was a 48 F-1. Wish I had it now!

marc