The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop media blasting

Martinsr or anyone else know of a good but inexpensive media blasting place in the bay area? I have to get my cab blasted so I can fix all the f ups of the previous owner. It seems that the previous owner felt that it was a good idea to fill all the holes ( door handles, antenna, door locks, etc...) with bondo instead of welding patch panels. Opps!!! Plus on the extended cab part the bondo is cracking which leaves me to believe that the welding was not done properly. Other than that the rest of the truck is in good shape.

Mac, I have had a number of cars done at Crown Chevrolet in Dublin. A complete car was only $450.00. I have to tell you though, it does not remove plastic filler or rust. It will remove the plastic filler I guess, if you were to take the time (time=money).

But if you were to have it striped at least you know where all the filler is and you can then just sand it out. That is what I did at least.

Martinsr, would it be better if I just took a DA sander to it myself? I had thought that it removed plastic filler, maybe I'll just sand it myself. I'll have to give Crown Dublin a call and see what they have to say. Thanks for the help. I'm gonna try to get this done soon.

I have heard a pad recommended that fits in a buffer motor. I think it was 3M. I hear with that pad you can strip a car to bare metal in a day easy. That is cheaper than hassling with getting it blasted.

I am just starting a 54 3100 project using a 5HP compressor. After finding my DA sander gets ahead of the compressor quickly I decided to sand blast the frame & sheetmetal. Instead of using a pressurized sand blaster I bought a siphon gun at Walmart for $13 and a $5 bag of fine blasting sand from Sear Hardware and went to town. This has worked wonders and I have had no problem with warpage of the sheet metal. It does take time but I have been capturing the sand, screening and re-using it over and over. I have the rear frame completed, the hood, rear fenders and front fenders done to date and only used three bags of sand. Add it up. Be sure to use gloves, a good dust mask, a cap and a face shield for protection. It works fine on surface rust, old paint and primer but is slow on paint that is solid. The neighbors have not complained yet as the noise level is very low. Do it yourself.

On sheetmetal, I like the chemical strippers because they do the work instead of you... I will generally rough sand the areas with 80 grit paper to give the stripper a chance to penetrate. Then I'll apply a plastic sheat DIRECTLY on the stripper-covered surface to prolongs 'wetness', thus increasing the effectiveness.

whizzerick

On sheetmetal, I like the chemical strippers because they do the work instead of you... I will generally rough sand the areas with 80 grit paper to give the stripper a chance to penetrate. Then I'll apply a plastic sheat DIRECTLY on the stripper-covered surface to prolongs 'wetness', thus increasing the effectiveness.

whizzerick

Thanks for the info guys. I like the hame sand blaster technique. I think I will have to give it a try a I do have a compressor and sand and the gun are so cheep. I have used chemical strippers and all they do is take all my 1 doller bills.HAHAHAHA. :p But really I have tried strippers (POR 15) and haven't had much luck, maybe I wasn't doing it right or something.