[jeff chmura]

I'm thinking of trying my hand at media blasting my car myself. I see Eastwood has a 100 lb pressure blaster not too expensive. Anyone blast their car? I have the space outside to do it,so that's not a problem. I'm thinking of doing it in stages (panel by panel) and priming as I go. If anyone did this before,what media did you use? I have 3 different colors to take off.

Thanks, Jeff

[BB70]

Yes I've done certain areas of my car with a Harbor Freight 100 lb one. I would have material feed problems with black beauty , but it works great with sand. I haven't done any panels such as the exterior roof or fenders and doors for fear of hurting them. On those type of panels I would use paint stripper or other means of removal.
John

[bdk1976]

Hope you have a big compressor, a strong back, and a lot of time! A big yard with no (or distant) neighbors helps as well. I did a '67 2+2 frame last fall and it was a ton of work-much of it reloading the pressure blaster tank. Used the same pressure blaster and media as BB70- powered by a 5HP 17cfm Saylor-beall compressor with a 120gal tank.

I prefer to remove paint/rust from the body by other means....especially on large flat panels. Door jambs and underbody are candidates for blasting, IMO, depending on what your end goal is with the car. I also like to blast inner fenders, core support, etc.


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[jamesn]

I’ve stripped almost all of the paint from my frame off project. I’ve used a number of methods to do it, including sand blasting, sanding with a DA sander with 80 grit paper, chemical stripping, and scraping with a razor blade. I think each method has it’s place, and each method has disadvantages associated with it’s use.

Sand blasting is a great tool to use but beware of the potential for damaging parts and getting hurt. Be aware that when the sanding media strikes the part it comes bouncing back like being shot with BBs. Cover any skin that you hope to keep and wear good eye protection and a dust mask. I use sandblasting only for structurally sound areas with little or no chance of being deformed by the process.

I used Black Diamond media (30/60 grit) to strip the frame of old paint and rust. It worked great but it does take some time. For other areas I’ve been using plain play sand. It’s much milder but it still can damage your car or you. Research the health dangers associated with using sand. I use it, but…………….

The sand blaster I use is a Sears 50 lb. kit. It’s a cheapie but so far it’s done the job. I find that it works much better if I set it on something like a bench or table so that it doesn’t have to suck the media up so high. It prevents a lot of clogs but when it does stop feeding I just block the nozzle with a finger and give a couple quick blasts to purge the line. I always filter the media through a screen before using it. Be sure to clean sand blasted parts before painting them.

Another thing that I do – because I’m cheap – is to sweep the sprayed media up from the ground, filter it through a fine screen and reuse it. Yes, the media does break down with use but I do it and it works for me.

Jim

[larutan]

Recently saw on my classic car (the dude with the wild mustache.) There is a water system out there he has shown, no body warpage at all. Safe, environment friendly, fast. Check out his site

[jeff chmura]

Thanks for all the info,
I have a 50 lb siphon sandblaster that I have used on cars in the past. I know what you mean about the sand bouncing back! compressor wise, I have a Coleman 7.5 HP 120 gal tank 35.2 CFM unit I got from a retired body shop, so I think the compressor will be OK.
I'm mainly concerned about what type of media to use on the panels. I think sand/black beauty would be too aggressive. I'm not sure which would be better, aluminum oxide or glass beads .
It would cost me around $1000 to have the body blasted. Eastwood has the 100 lb blaster on sale for $119. Media would probably be in the $20-$40 price range per bag. I'm thinking I can do the whole car and epoxy prime the whole car for less than $1000 just wondering if anyone has attempted this before with good results.

Thanks Jeff

[jamesn]

A few weeks ago I stripped my drivers door. It took about 30 mins. to do the outside of the door using a DA sander with 80 grit paper. I used two or three sheets, changing them when they stopped cutting fast. If The other flat panels were not already stripped I would use the DA whenever I could.

Jim

[rolling money pits]

been there, done that. both pressure and siphon feed. in the heat of a DC metro area summer as well as middle of winter when snow was falling. yes, i blasted outside while snow was falling.

set up tarps/canvas blankets to contain material....and keep snow off, lol. still made a heck of a mess with dust. respirator, long everything, and full face shield are a must. pay attention to humidity as well, it wreaks havoc on function when high.

[rexs73gto]

The blaster on classic cars is around 30K for that system thats why they say it's great for a business, it very expensive. If you only have 1 car to do it won't pay. But if your going into business it's a great system.

[dataway]

When I asked the guy I want to paint my car about sand blasting the body he told me NO. The reason why? He said the almost without fail, when the car is painted, the paint gun air stream will dislodge sand hidden in crevices etc. and contaminate the paint.

[jeff chmura]

Good points.....
I did a little more research, walnut shells seem to be the best media for paint removal without damage to the flat panels,but it's messy.
I am seeing alot of talk about soda blasting. Eastwood has a 100lb soda blast kit that also comes with an option that lets you convert to media if you want. Also comes with a bag of soda. They also have an optional water mist system that will cut the dust down 50%. It was featured on my classic car. there's a YouTube video on it. The system is $269. I'm now thinking on that, I want to see if there going to be at the Englishtown swap meet in April.

[400 4spd.]

Any blast media is messy, regardless of what you use. Sometimes it can take hours of clean up time after a LARGE blasting job. We have outdoor blasters and a large blast cabinet for stuff under 64". Depending on what we are blasting, it might be done with extra fine sand, fine black diamond, 80 grit aluminum oxide or glass beads. A neighbor has one of the new Dustless Blasters for industrial sized jobs. I've used all that I mentioned but I never use soda. Soda will remove paint and filler. Period. It might also cause paint adhesion problems. Aircraft Stripper or a sander will do the same removal job (paint and filler), so those are my other options.

[jeff chmura]

400,
Good points. Problem I'm going to have is my car was painted 3 different colors in its life. Original iris mist,orange,now burgundy. I'm going to go back to the original iris mist. The orange that was sprayed back in the day wasn't done right, so now the burgundy it is now is peeling/flaking off the orange. I need to strip at least down to the iris mist to give me a good base. I can do that with a DA sander. I'm concerned I will run into problems in areas i cant sand well (front header,trunk corners,weatherstrip areas,etc) that's where the blasting comes in. If I'm going to need it for some areas, why not just do the whole car?

[400 4spd.]

I understand your problem. First, do not consider the first coat of paint as a "good base". The best base is clean, dry metal that you shoot some epoxy primer over. Secondly, like you point out a sander won't go everywhere that you have paint to remove. Those are the places that sand blasting will clean without harming.
Body areas that are safe to sand blast without warping are firewalls, door/fender/trunk/hood jambs, floors, rockers, window channels.
Places that are prone to warping are outer panels when getting more than an inch from any edge. Edges and body lines add strength to outer panels.

Maybe look through some pictures on my site to see what body areas we safely blast with abrasive materials without fear of warping.

www.barrsrestoration.com

[jeff chmura]

400,
Thanks for the info. yes,"good base" probably wasn't the right term, better that what I have now would of been better. LOL Let me ask you this, would you blast the jambs,rockers,etc using sand or soda? I'm asking because I have a 50lb siphon blaster that I can use, but I'd be OK buying a soda blaster if it would be better.
I replaced the left lower quarter already and did sand the portion above with a DA using 80grit.(see pictures) When I got down to the original Iris Mist, it was getting harder to sand, at that point, you would still go to bare metal with the DA.?

[jeff chmura]

sanding pictures...

[400 4spd.]

I've never had a repair that required a soda blaster. Could I have used one? Yes. Would I ever use one? No. Would I use one if it was given to me? No.
Sand blast the areas you asked about. Or use some other more expensive abrasive media like aluminum oxide, glass beads, black diamond. Whatever you blast with, afterwards scuff the surface clean with a scotchbrite and compressed air. That will get rid of any dust layer. Do not rub, wash or clean with a liquid or tack cloth. Also do not use an etching primer, but spray with a good epoxy primer.

It's getting harder to sand because it's the original lacquer paint and primer. Yes, I would take those places to bare steel for several reasons. Appearance, adhesion, corrosion protection, etc. And I would get epoxy primer on them a.s.a.p.
If you short cut and leave patches of paint behind it will probably be apparent after your paintwork is fini$hed.

[jeff chmura]

400,
thanks for all the advice. one more question, would you use a more aggressive sandpaper than 80 grit to sand flat panels? If so, what would you recommend?
Thanks again, Jeff

[bdk1976]

One thing I've done when stripping paint is use a razor blade to peel much of the paint off. Depending on the type/condition of the paint, sometimes you can remove most of the paint this way quite quickly. Will save time and sanding disks when you go to sand and will cut down on the mess. This is mainly for large/flat panels.

I'm sure 400 knows better than I do about the lowest grit to use, but I can tell you I'd like to wrap my hands around the neck of the guy who stripped my '66 convertible. I'm pretty sure he used 36, if not 24 grit and it certainly caused some issues with deep scratches. I think 80 or maybe 60 is the lowest I'd go unless I had to really hog out some bad filler work.


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[400 4spd.]

You won't go wrong using 80 grit on bare metal. If you use something coarser (such as 40) to knock some paint build down quickly, switch to 80 if you see a hint of metal and finish with that.
As bdk1976 mentioned, you don't want anything worse than 80 in the metal surface. 80 grit in your metal is fine to prime over, whereas 80 grit scratches in paint or filler are literally deeper and can haunt you later as the finish cures and shrinks.