Sand Blasting

ocwd · Post by **ocwd** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:38 pm

I am looking for a place to take my frame and have it sand blasted. Does any one here know of a good place near North Orange County California.

Thanks,

Dave

moby · Post by **moby** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:57 am

Hi, I can't help with a blaster in California . I live in Connecticut. I bought a cheep sand blasting unit from northern tool and did my frame myself. I think it was less than a hundred bucks and it worked pretty well. the abrasive is cheap seven dollars for a hundred pound bag. I started by scraping of all of the loose stuff by hand.then used a med--fine abrasive I bought at a local mason supply.the corse sand kept clogging the tip.the only other concern would be to make shure your compresor has a large enough capasity to keep up with the blaster. and don't forget to have your primer ready to go. blasted meatal starts to rust FAST! so put the primer on right away. One other thing you might want to look into -I had the body tub for my m38 soda blasted . it was expensive but it came out like brand new. Good Luck, Moby

TomM · Post by **TomM** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:59 pm

Did the soda blast remove any surface rust? Or do you have to chase the little spots of rust with regular grit?

Tom

moby · Post by **moby** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:49 am

Hi Tom, The soda bonds to paint and rust. As it is shot out at high pressure through some chemical process it only will remove rust, paint, or grease. It does not work well on heavily rusted scaly or pitted meatal because the soda is very fine. They can dial the machine in to just take off layers of paint or strip off everything and I mean everything ! my body tub came out like brand new. One amazing thing about it is that it does not touch glass, plastic, rubber or wood . you can even leave the windshield and the gauges in the dash! On the down side it is expensive. My bill came to about 1500. to do all the body parts. Check out the web site Connecticut Sodablasting.com Good luck , Don

TomM · Post by **TomM** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:01 am

Thanks, I had read about sodablast but had never gotten any feedback from anyone who had it done. That sounds like what the doctor ordered. I use American Sandblasting and they did a great job on my frame but they are very blunt in telling you that they will warp the body.
It sounds like the soda method really cuts the possibliity of heating the body panels and warping them.
I'll check out CT!
FYI, I lost a buddy, Ed Adams last year from Bear Island. He had a fine LARC anfib truck. I think Stoney Creek will miss it.

Tom

Post by **Ryan_Miller** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:26 pm

Tom,

I have had several car bodies and parts soda blasted. It works well to remove paint, but not rust or bondo.
Usually they follow up and spot sandblast rust and bondo.

It is not cheap, but is the best way to prevent warping and uneeded metal removed from heavy sand blasting.

Ryan

ocwd · Post by **ocwd** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:55 pm

Thanks for the input guys. I hadn't thought about the body yet. I planned on using metal prep after sand blsting and before priming the frame. The body is a different story. The last owner put a semi-thick coating of that black stuff on some of the floor panels. I think that the boby will be quite a bit of work.

I just need to pull the axles, springs, engine, transfer case, and transmission and I am ready to start working on the frame. I thought about just using abrasive pads on the frame and skipping the sand blasting all together. That may take forever though.