One shop I stopped at wants 65 dollars to just sand blast my 79 Ford step bumper. I found another shop that bid 75 dollars to sand blast it AND WILL powder coat it with "almost chrome" powder coat in that price. So whats up ? ..

Is one making a decent profit just sandblasting or is the sandblast/ PC shop working too cheap and giving out less than quality work ? I am baffled about the difference in the two bids. I dont throw my money at people, but I also know that people that are losing money , cannot do good work for long. What is the normal price out here for what I am getting bids on ???

 

Interesting, I paid $120 for a sandblast/black powdrecoat on the tube bumper on my Toyota. Looks good thought it was a pretty reasonable price until I read your post LOL! But I also live in California (Read Cantafordya) so everything cost double! Consider the time to blast and coat figure materials most blasters figure time per item and figure that they can do so many per hour. just to blast it the price seems high I doubt it would take an hour to do a bumper.

 

I just got some sandblasting and powercoating done. I had 2 inner fenders. 1 radiator support and a step bumper that got sandblasted and the step bumper was powder coating in almost chrome (the almost chrome looks nice i think you'll like it. the total cost was $200.00.

 

On edit 08/12/05

I dropped the bumper off today at this same shop. The guy in the office quoted me 75 bucks for the blast only. which is what am getting, no PC. When I told him of the above paradox, he said he could not imagine who in his shop would have quoted me that price. At least now he knows to watch out for a crumbling cookie in his jar,

 

I never have done or have seen sand blasting done so what all is involved with it?When its done are you trying to go all the way to metal? Is it easy to warp panels?Do most people sift and re-use the sand? Is it a fast enough process to do a whole vehicle at one time and then put a coat of primer on . Whats the minamal horse power and PSI compressor do you need?

 

i got my whole frame , 2 sets shock towers , radius arms and brackets, coil pads , coil towers, 1/2 of cab(floor , firewall, bottom,cab corners and around windows,) parking brake pedal assembly , and gastank mounting hardware all sandblasted for $160 canadian. i was charged $60 per hour .

 

When its done are you trying to go all the way to metal?
yes, and to eliminate existing paint , all rust, and to get down to the clean metal . That way the clean metal will give the primer a good surface to bond to, because the primer is the first coat to go on, and must be bonded well, if the rest of the topcoats are going to stay on .

Is it easy to warp panels? yes, if the blasting operator stays in one area too long , and lets the metal get hot from the friction of the high pressure sand blast hitting it.

Do most people sift and re-use the sand ? yes

Is it a fast enough process to do a whole vehicle at one time and then put a coat of primer on ? . Some SB shops (not diyers) may be able to with large enough equipment and availlable man power. For most people they take it in stages for the sandblasting, like chassis first, removed parts, then body, etc

Whats the minamal horse power and PSI compressor do you need ? The larger the better. 5 hp or better. When blasting , one is just opening up the air hose wide open , if that gives a idea of how much air will be used and that has to be re-produced by the A/C. A 3 hp , 90 psi w/9cfm might even work, but will put a big strain on the air compressor and the user, by increasing the time it takes for the air to build back up, and make it a slow going job. When the A/C has to work too hard , it produces a lot of condensate in the air lines, a no- no for sand blasting. A in-line hose water seperator/filter would be needed to do sand blasting so the sand will not clog up the basting tip with damp sand..

Warning : Sandblasting is dangerous because of the dust particles the user may get in their lungs (and other body parts) if not protected well. The most popular beach looking sand , will have silica in it, which causes silicocis in the lungs , that is bad, bad stuff. Their are a lot of different blasting medias out here to choose from. Each type has its own characteristics that make it more suitable ,for what is to be blasted...

A person needs ample enclosed space (plastic tent) and one they dont mind trashing up. A GOOD dual canister (no paper masks ! ) particulate respirator (fresh air suit is best but big $$$$ ) and the other total body part protection equipment. If one doesnt have the personal safety equipment to SB with, they should leave SB'ing to the big shops and keep themselves from harms way...
To do large parts I think a DIYER is better off just letting a SB shop do it. I invested 90 bucks in a 5 gallon blaster, made a huge mess of my patio, and end up letting a SB shop do it anyway for 75 bucks, because I dont want the mess to deal with. all jmo

 

It sounds like $75 is a fair price to strip a full sized bumper.Some have been powder coated and their a pain to strip.To coat it $150 is a reasonable price.Unfortunately the silver chrome WILL REQUIRE clear IF you don't want it to dull to a gray color.It won't rust but it will look bad.Hope this info helps!

 

sounds like you guys are getting great prices, i had my rear end blasted and powder coated for my car and it was $300

had brand new rotors coated in galvanize powder coat then regular powder coat for $200

 

Sounds like you are all getting jipped, lol, or we are just good. We got a whole frame from a 77 Chevy truck sandblased for $90, and the guy did a great job too, the only places he missed we where he absolutely couldn't get the gun in there to hit it.

 

Ya but i bet the powdercoat is what you payed for.
i can get a rearend sandblasted for 25 bucks.

 

A cheap sandblaster from Harbor Freight pays for itself quickly if you have a lot to sandblast. We picked up one for sandblasting the underbody of our 75 Trans Am, and a smaller cabinet blaster. Its really nice to sandblast all the little hardware parts. It takes no time at all to throw some of the hardware under the hood in the blaster and paint them up, and it makes all the difference visually.