As I've mentioned in posts before, I recently bought a 1935 Buick, and have started the frame-off restoration. I have the body off, and am nearly ready to begin sandblasting the frame. The frame is solid, with (a good amount of) surface rust. My question is: is there anyone out there that's used a sandblaster on a frame before? Any opinions on what sandblaster I should get? In particular, I'm not sure if I need the pressure feed, or if the siphon feed will be good enough for the job. If I can find a pressure feed at a good price, should I go for that or is it overkill? I'm looking for something powerful enough to take a good amount of surface rust off a frame, but not so powerful that it warps my body later on. Any suggestions are appreciated! ~Overdrive
My two cents The el cheapo siphon feed units ($20 specials) are really tough to use and not good for big items like a frame. They are also prone to clogging up if your sand is even a tiny bit damp. As far as warping body panels, the problem comes from using the wrong media (sand) when stripping thin sheet metal. MANY kinds of abrasive media are available, that's why it's usually called "media blasting" rather than "sand blasting" now. Abrasives include plastic beads, glass beads, steel shot, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, walnut shells, etc. I suggest you do a little research on the web - check out the abrasive manufacturer's sites for their recommendations. Also I think Eastwood sells a small scale pressure tank setup, probably the media too. They tend to be expensive but you might learn something from their catalog. Good luck and blast away!
I sandblast lettering on gravestones. lindsey makes a good pressure unit. make sure the media is clean. if you try to reuse it filter it with a pasta strainer, also buy a good mask, not a crappy paper one. some monument companys will blast frames, we used to in the winter, when business was slow. you also might be able to rent one.
Harbor Freight sells a super duper pressure blaster for i think around $80. i got one last year and i've never had a problem. it's awesome. the siphon ones are very lame. i bought one and it CONSTANTLY clogged up and when it did work there was hardly any pressure to it.
Overdrive, Have you considered sending your frame out to be blasted? There are a number of reasons to strongly consider doing this. One is that it takes FOREVER with nonprofessional blastiing equipment and air supply. I don't know what kind of compressor you have, but for continuous blasting duty, you really need a high output compressor with a big tank that won't run continuously. My 3-horse 30-gallon unit doesn't have NEARLY the output required for this type of duty. Additionally, unless you have a large tract of land, you're going to be spreading silica dust to all your neighbors; something I'm sure they won't be grateful for. (As a minimum, check your local laws....) Lastly, unless you have a sealed hood with remote air supply, you'll be on the road to getting silicosis, which is the opposite of fun. Even WITH proper protection, folks down here who do this for a living develop the disease over time. I've personally known two guys who died from it. What I did was to rent a U-Haul trailer and find a fabrication yard to blast and paint the entire chassis. And they did it for under $300, which I thought was a steal, especially considering how much work it would have been to do it myself! These guys have blasting equipment that looks like fire hoses, along with huge, industrial compressors. They can do the whole thing in an hour or two. Good luck with whatever route you decide to take, and HTH....
secondary sandblasting questi Well, I found a Harbor Freight 40# pressure feed sandblaster on ebay for $50, and couldn't pass it up. I figure it's worth the money to try it myself -- if my compressor isn't up for it, I can always have it professionally done. (Please correct me if I'm wrong): For the frame, I figure I can use fine dry sand that I can pick up at a local lake. This will a) be cheap, and b) keep me from getting silicosis, since I'll be using sand as a media, and will have a good air filter. But once I sandblast the frame, I understand that I'll want to somehow prep the frame to keep it from being exposed to oxygen and starting to rust again. What methods do you guys recommend? Primer? A rust converter? Both? If you have a favorite, how do you apply it? (Brush, Spray gun, etc...) Thanks for all your input -- it's been very helpful so far! ~Overdrive
Re: secondary sandblasting questi Sandblasting sand is pretty cheap to buy. I think I only paid about 10.00 for a bag. It's clean, dry, and is a consistent size. I don't think you will get good results with beach sand. I also use my shop vac to clean up the mess and then I run it through a screen to clean it, then I can reuse it a couple of times.
i used the chassis restoration kit from eastwood. it seems to be working very well. i think it was around $60. you get the rust encapsulator coating and the eastwood "chassis black" final coats. you can paint it on with a brush or get the spray can version. i used the brush on, but the spray would be much easier to get to hard to reach spots. i've noticed that the rust convert stuff doesn't work well with completely bare metal, i.e no rust. it would turn the parts that are rusty to the black primer, but on the very bare metal it would flake off. this is my first restoration so someone else might have better input on what products work better.
