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[GTchris]

Is there anyone around you that does sand blasting that you could take the car to ?

When I was looking into having my whole car done I was quoted $700.00

I cannot imagine that having just the engine bay blasted would cost all that much. The upside is if you do not have the blaster and safety gear already or know someone that you could borrow one from, you would not have to buy one; and you would not have that mess in your garage.

Another thing I noticed is that the compressor that you have while it is not small is not very big either. It looks like it is about the same size tank as the compressor I have. Is the compressor you bought a 120V or a 240V? The one I have is a 120V. It works awesome for about 30sec when blasting then the performance really starts to drop off. That's okay for small parts but I could see it taking quite a while to do an engine bay waiting for the compressor to catch up constantly.

I know that there were previous posts regarding gear, this is an absolute must. The media you use is very bad stuff if you get it in your lungs. I still wear a mask when I use my cabinet ( a descent mask, not just one of those cheapo paper things) and the cabinet has a vacuum and a filter on it.

 

[sigtauenus]

Well I've never used an air compressor before OR a paint gun... so who knows how well I will do using paint products. I'm only doing the engine bay so I guess it doesn't matter if it doesn't come out looking super nice, right? art

The engine bay is very forgiving. I made a lot of mistakes on mine doing it myself, spraying with HVLP and epoxy for the first time ever. I'm glad I did it though, learned quite a bit and next time will be better.

 

[stangg]

Well I've never used an air compressor before OR a paint gun... so who knows how well I will do using paint products. I'm only doing the engine bay so I guess it doesn't matter if it doesn't come out looking super nice, right? art

I guess my point is that POR doesn't protect as well as most expect it too. To me, it doesn't look right either, worst of all its a royal pain in the butt to clean up. If you're concerned about spraying paint with a compressor, then think about using spray boms. A lot of folks still use duplicor paint to detail parts and engine bays. I think rustoleum's rusty metal primer works pretty good on parts I don't care to break out the epoxy on.

If your engine bay has some surface rust... clean it up as much as you can mechanically, then when you go to the autobody supply store, see if they have Marson One Step. It's a rust converter that does a great job stabilizing rust and a lot cheaper and easier to use than POR. You'll need to prime and paint over it, but it's very easy to use. I usually brush it on with an acid brush or one of those 50 cent 2" brushes from harbor freight. With decent prep you can still do a very nice job with inexpensive paints.

 

[cmayna]

Kat,
Are you considering blasting the entire car? Have you shopped around for a local media blaster to do the entire shell? Aluminum Oxide is not near as harsh as sand. I'd consider it big time before I ever put my garage though such an ordeal.

 

[Kats66Pny]

I'm not blasting the whole car or the whole engine bay. Paint will be removed via grinder w/sanding disks and/or aircraft stripper and any hard to reach odd shaped places will be spot blasted. That;s the plan as of now. I won't know everything for sure until I strip the whole car down to metal and see what's under the paint and bondo.

 

[Horseplay]

I would still do some investigating into available options to have the shell and body parts media blasted. The reality is that the cost of materials (papers, pads, wheels, stripper, etc.) and tools, not to mention time, to bring a car down to metal is pretty significant. In terms of rust, you'll never get it all cleaned out in pitted areas and such without blasting. You'll find out real fast that the compressor and set-up you bought is good for cleaning up a small bracket or such but will drive you absolutely mad if you try and use it to clean up large areas of the body. Your compressor will have trouble even powering a low volume spray gun for more than a minute or so. It will die trying to supply the air necessary for blast work. Not too mention, you need be careful when blasting body panels as it is fairly easy to overheat the metal and cause distortion, etc.

A good blaster can have the whole car done in a day or so. You have no idea how awesome it is to work on a "clean" shell. There are no more mysteries as far as where there may be rot hiding. Patch work is simpler as you have nothing but clean metal left. After finally relenting and having a car done this way, I would never consider doing anything the old fashioned way again. Do yourself a HUGE favor and at least look into it.

 

[Kats66Pny]

I've already determined I'm not going to put that much money into Gertrude. I'm not doing a full frame off restoration, stripped down to a rolling chassis, etc. Basically she is going to get enough done to get her back on the road again where I can enjoy driving her and making heads turn. She is going to be my learning experience on Mustangs.

Years from now when I get my Mach ... that is when I will spend the $$ and do a total restoration. After I have learned more about Mustangs, and have had time to learn how to weld, etc.

 

[Anonymous]

+1 to what Terry said

I blasted my entire car in my driveway. Biggest PITA job that I've ever done. My friend that helped me build my original engine was building a drag car from a 80 Capri. He found a local place and had his car bead blasted. Took them a day and it was just as clean as my car that I spent MONTHS blasting.

I would NEVER waste so much time again to clean the car myself! Blasting it yourself is a good way to get the "F" the car attitude...speaking from experience.

 

[AzPete]

Sounds like you are wanting a quickie job on Gert. No matter what route you take, the rust must be replaced with good metal, the old paint must be removed, and new parts must be installed inside and out. The biggest savings in the quickie route is in labor which you can do nearly all of it. Parts cost the same so why not spend a bit more time and do the better way.

I have had cars done right and some done wrong.......it sure is nice being able to brag about the quality under the paint as opposed to making excuses as to why the paint cracked or there is a rust bubble on new paint.

 

[Horseplay]

And therein lies the problem we all face. To do it "right" takes a lot of time and effort and, oh yeah, money. Pete is right, of course. A short-cut will only lead to unsatisfactory results and disappointment. Think about any project you have completed, automotive or not. I for one know that the first thing I ever see is that one blemish. That one thing I didn't get quite right. Drives me nuts (finishes the drive anyway). When it comes to cars, rust HAS to be removed. If not, it will come back in spades. A whole lot faster than you think.

While Pete is right that you can count your labor as free and therefore you can afford to take the time to do the job right, the problem with that is that very few of us can dedicate enough time each day to complete the project before we begin to lose the drive. Somewhere at week 6, or month 5, it gets really hard to focus on the end result and not see the last 50% of the metal that needs attention. That's why hiring out the media blasting is so great. Almost overnight you have a blank canvas upon which to draw your masterpiece. Believe me, it is a whole lot easier to keep the interest when each day finds you adding this or that new part. Finishing up some assembly rather than spending another week grinding out more rust.

 

[RyanG85]

I guess my point is that POR doesn't protect as well as most expect it too. To me, it doesn't look right either, worst of all its a royal pain in the butt to clean up. If you're concerned about spraying paint with a compressor, then think about using spray boms. A lot of folks still use duplicor paint to detail parts and engine bays. I think rustoleum's rusty metal primer works pretty good on parts I don't care to break out the epoxy on.

+1! Dont waste your money on POR 15. Surface needs to be right or it wont stick, its near impossible to get anything to stick over it and it DOES NOT live up to what its advertised to do.

I used POR at first and had a heck of a time redoing those areas. I used Master Series Silver on some areas and that is a way better encapsulator. Goes on easy and is easily painted over.

Make sure you have the right respirator for doing jobs like blasting and painting. Stay away from silica sand when blasting.

 

[2ndgen]

Make sure you have the right respirator for doing jobs like blasting and painting. Stay away from silica sand when blasting.

Rule #1: You only get one set of lungs.

I have a modest compressor and blast cabinet, which is probably my favorite restoration tool. It is amazing what you can do... I never use sand (glass beads and walnut shells only for me). Blasting with non-professional equipment is extremely tiresome for large jobs; as others suggest I had my whole car professionally blasted and epoxied... I can not imagine the effort to do this at home.

If you are not going to go this route and need to do this yourself, here is my advice:

1) Make the blasting as easy as possible: use a chemical stripper to get most of the paint, oil, and grime off and just blast for the final clean/derust.

2) Blasting WILL NOT remove undercoating/sound deadener. This stuff is soft and just absorbs the energy of the media - you need to scrape this off manually - which was probably my least favorite job in the restoration of my car.

Good luck,
-Rory

 

[Dne']

Probably in your mind, the sandblasting will take it off quickly, when in reality, it's a small pass and you'll be letting your compressor catch up often~ you have to give your compressor a break(you actually don't have a choice cause all the air is used up quickly!). Do like I did, I think the smaller shop vac attachment with the bristles may work better, but in the photo below worked fantastic! I still wore my best respirator and shield and a zip up suit. You'll find out soon enough! In doing it the way I did on the roof, I was able to recycle my media. When I used a pot blaster, I used my fresh air breathing system with the hood(kept me cool and NO dust!). Even when you're using your 4.5" paint busting discs~ you're conjouring up horrible dust ~ do not use a cheapy paper respirator! protect your body!
Buy about 4 or 5 7/16, 1/2, and 9/16 sockets~ they vanish! lol

 

[Kats66Pny]

That is what I was going to make when/if I need to spot blast an area I can't grind down with a sander. :thu Sure grinding with a sander and using chemical paint peel will take a while but oh well. I'm home all day anyway and it will give me something to do!

 

[Midlife]

Kat:
If you plan on doing any media blasting or painting with your air compressor, you'll need to install a water trap/filter. When air is compressed, water condenses and gets into you air lines, clogging up your media or paint. You also need to protect the system from oil contaminating your paint spray gun, so a filter is a good thing. It's kind of a pain-in-the-ass to set up, but once you do it, you can pretty much leave it alone. Go to www.tptools.com for some ideas about how to set up the water traps and filters. The piping is relatively cheap. I presume your compressor already has a regulator on it to control the out-going pressure.

 

[classicdoug]

Kat,

I have an old blast cabinet that I don't use anymore. It will probably need a new glass and definitely needs gloves, but you can have it if you want. It's just sitting out behind my shop right now.

Doug

 

[Midlife]

Kat,

I have an old blast cabinet that I don't use anymore. It will probably need a new glass and definitely needs gloves, but you can have it if you want. It's just sitting out behind my shop right now.

Doug

Snag that quick, Kat! TPTools will have replacement glass and gloves that you can retrofit.

 

[Dne']

They're great, but take up a lot of room! I sold mine cause I needed the space, but FREE~ hmm :thu

 

[Kats66Pny]

Kat,

I have an old blast cabinet that I don't use anymore. It will probably need a new glass and definitely needs gloves, but you can have it if you want. It's just sitting out behind my shop right now.

Doug

Sweet!!!!! :yah I'll probably have to find someone with a truck though, because I don't think it will fit in the sebring or lexus.

 

[KTJMcG]

I just picked up that identical compressor this morning. Watch yourself on the oil fill. The sight glass is kinda funny. I did what the instructions said and filled it to the line,Which is a red circle, And let it settle. 15 minutes later and it didn't. It raised. I emptied it out and started from scratch. Cleaned out the sight glass which doubles as the drain plug.Filled it again and left the fill cap off this time. Let it sit again and all was good. Let it run for 1/2 hour and changed the oil. When you first start it, Just bump the switch a couple of times. It'll pop the reset switch until you get the oil circulated.Get a good regulator and Line drier, The regulator that comes with it is garbage. After going through all of that, I'm kinda sorry I didn't just replace the 5hp 25gallon compressor with an identical one. It was oil less. It will donate it's tank though as 46 gallons of air is better than 21.