Sand Blasting Car -- what would you do?

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demon34071

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I have a problme making a decision on sand blasting my Demon.

I have two options:

1) Pay someone to do the job...Got 2 estimates and both are about $1000 to do the whole outside, whole inside, hood, fenders, valance, deck lid, and doors. So basically the whole car.

2) Or I can buy a 20 gal blaster set up for $145 and do it myself. Kicker is I have an entire pallet (40) 80lb bags of black beauty blasting media for free. So The media is free. I also have a 10 hp compressor so air volume is no problem either. And disposal of the sand is no problem since I can get rid of it for free too.

Has anyone done a car by themselves? If so how long did it take you. less than a day 2 days? Anyone?

What would you do....I'm thinking go cheap....but trying to figure out what some others may think.

Demon71
 
I've never done it myself but have heard were people have tryed and ended up warping the metal. If you are real careful and don't get the metal hot you might be alright.
 
a kid i work with had his car media blasted, using baking soda. only removes the paint, then where there is rust they switch to sand to remove all the rust, lots of different type of products used out there. but if it were me id try and do it myself, take your time and you'll be alright
 
Don't know what type of blaster you're considering - pressure or siphon. Definitely get the pressure blaster. Work will go a lot easier and faster with the pressure blaster. Siphon just takes forever. It's been quite awhile since I've blasted a car, but IIRC it shouldn't take much more than a hard, sweaty day under the hood (sweaty even in the winter). Worst thing will be getting ALL the media out of the little cracks and hiding spots inside the car. After you're done, you'll probably wish you would have paid someone to do it lol!
 
I would do it yourself.... that way you can take your time to slowly blast it, and hopefully not create too much pressure on one area...

I've had a bunch of different panels blasted by different companies.... never have gotten a straight piece back.... then you get to spend hours shaping it back and covering it with a light amount of bondo, or you can say screw it and lay the mud down and sand her till she's straight :-D

I say do it the ol' fashion way, get some sand paper out and a grinder and go to town on the body.... and then use a sand blaster from there for the hard to get to areas and rust....

just my 2 cents....
 
I was kinda thinking the same thing doing both sanding and blasting...still not sold yet.

What I was thinking was hit the large areas with sanding and then hit places that sanding is a ***** like window window trough areas, deep seams, undercoated areas, etc with the sand blaster. But then parts of me say sand blast the crap out of the whole darn thing....
 
If you do it keep it moving and keep the metal cool. Staying in one spot or on the same panel too long will warp it for sure.
 
I am with team dart, I would hand do the body, it doesn't have to be bare metal to hold paint well. Everythng else you can blast, we used crushed walnut shells. It will save you hours of sanding and grinding, the body I wouldn't gamble with unless your going to replace most of it.
 
I have all of the stuff myself as well. I haven't tried to do it yet but I'm going to. You have it all at your disposal just do it. But be careful. It's just like painting, stay moving and stay consistant. Dont mees up your car. Good luck. But I've never done it. So I would definately listen to the people who have.
 
if you do it you can blast then prime one panel at a time instead of rushing to get it sealed up
 
I did it using sand and a siphon blaster. I bought a cheap sears portable blaster and a 55 gal rubbermaid garbage can. Drill a hole in the bottom and screwed in the siphon hose. I did it in my two car garage. I would do a panel on the weekend and spray it with DPLF epoxy primer. I was very careful with the pressure and didn't warp anything. I had to scrape the undercoat off before blasting. That being said I would not do it again. The sand gets EVERYWHERE! I cleaned that car FOREVER and I will never get all of it out. I would have it soda blasted by a reputable shop and have the rust done with something more aggressive. I was in no rush and attempting to keep the budget as small as possible. In this area I would spend the money.
 
I did my entire car...inside and out. Yes it takes some work to get all the sand out ..but it's not that big of a deal. What ever you do don't do the hood ...ask me how I know. I removed the most off the top with a d/a and 40 grit then finished it off very lightly with the blaster. I didn't have any problem with warpage anywhere else. Just keep moving and don't concentrate on any one spot for a long period of time. When I ran into places where it was just really hard to get off I broke out the d/a again with 40 grit.
 
I think I would just sand blast the rusty areas,anything you can do with a sander or chemical stripper will reduce the warpage,on larger flat panels blast at an angle(this will keep the heat down) and keep it moving.my dad did this for a living for several years and seems to be the only on who didn't warp the panels,keeping the blaster at an angle and moving constantly is his best advice and we also used foam rubber to keep sand from the hard to reach areas to make clean up more thorough.wear a mask!!!! breathing silica is NOT GOOD!!!
 
I have sandblasted a lot of cars/parts over the years, and if you aren't careful, you can warp panels to the point where they are almost useless.

Any place there are lots of compound curves, such as the complete front end, from the windshield forward, minus the hood and fenders, you will be fine, so blast away. Inside the car, the trunk, the bottom, the rocker panels, are all easy and safe to blast.

However, when it comes to the actual body panels themselves, especially large flat areas like the hood, trunk lid, quarter panels, roof, doors, and front fenders, be safe and use a D/A sander to remove the paint. If you find rusty areas on those panels, you can hit them with the blaster enough to get rid of the rust.

If you're doing the inside of the hood, doors, and trunk lid, you can safely blast all the main support structures and braces, but stay away from the unsupported sheetmetal. Same goes for the front fenders, quarters, etc. Where the metal is tightly curved or braced, blast away.

A proper respirator with new filters, and a good blasting hood with a good supply of lenses for the hood are a MUST. This stuff can cause some permanent damage to your bod if you aren't careful.

Good luck, and happy blasting.
 
Well I said the heck with paying someone to sandblast mine so I went to work building me a rotisserie and a sandblaster with a nice deadman valve and a good ceramic nozzle and a blaster that would hold 250 lbs. of sand (built it from an old propane cylinder).Took the thing apart mounted it on the rotisserie pushed it outside and started blasting with fine sand.It was very time consuming,but well worth it.It took me about 5 hrs. to do the shell of the body.Then I done the doors,fenders hood & deck lid.I knew these were flat surface panels and would warp if you blasted them head on so I angled my blaster nozzle and hit them sideways (no warpage at all) and approached them approx. 16" away everything came out perfect.Built the blaster and rotisserie at 1/2 the cost of what they wanted to blast the car.....:cheers:
Very thrilled with my outcome......If I had to do it again I would do it all over...By the way when you spin the car on the rotisserie you would be surprised how much sand comes out on the floor.Then it's up to the ol blow nozzle and you.......Just thought I would give some input on my experience.
Good Luck !!!!

blasted.jpg


blaster.jpg
 
Started to do my own and found out that the time I had into picking up tools and sand, blasting and cleaning up, I could have just gone to work and made twice as much money as it would cost to have a professional do it. Plus I had it stripped and sent straight to the body shop so they could properly prep and seal the metal to prevent future problems. If you sandblast the exterior of the body and warp the metal you will end up payong a body shop alot more than you saved.
Saving money sure is expensive!
 
Hey tufftoy, I'd sure like to see some photos and a how-to on your home made blaster. I have a used tank that looks just like the one you used, and have nothing else to do with it. Great idea.

Hope I'm not hijacking the thread with this. :)
 
Just a side thought here.

If you decide not to do the job yourself, you should know that the pallet of Black Beauty you got for free is worth about a grand on the open market. I pay $13.50 for a 100 lb. bag, it is not hazardous to your health like silica sand and it lasts about five times as long.

If your pal has any more to give away, please pass along my number. LOL!!!!

Best of luck with your decision and the results.
 
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