The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint / Rust stripping

How do you strip your sheetmetal?

Soda Blasting
Chemical stripping
Sanding
Sandblasting

If you sandblast do you use sand or another compound?

If you use soda or chemical, what do you use to get the rust off?

My cab has some surface rust on the roof. I don't want to warp the metal with the heat of sand, but I want to remove the rust.

Thanks

(Compound. That should be Media)
If you do a search you will find different Medias for different jobs and or aggressiveness.
http://www.kramerindustriesonline.com/blasting-media.htm
Hope this helps some.

I take my parts to a professional sandblaster. He has never warped a panel yet. For smaller items I use my own sandblaster out behind the shop.

I had complete cabs sandblasted with no problem. Plus it's usually cheaper than dipping, or media blasting.

If you don't have a professional sandblaster in your area, check for Cemetary Monument manufacturers. They can sandblast your parts too.

Frank

Sheet metal can be warped if not handled correctly, particularly the newer thinner sheet metal. Our old trucks metal is much stronger and thus less susceptible to warping. Still can happen; be sure whoever does it knows what he's doing. On the other hand many of the other mediums like soda, walnut shells, etc. fail to remove the rust.

Just a minor point: contrary to popular belief, warped sheetmetal is NOT due to HEAT from blasting. The sand pounding the metal acts like 1000's of tiny hammer blows to the metal, stretching the metal and causing the warpage. Sandblasting does NOT create heat. Keep the gun angled to the metal (avoid 90 degree angles) and there will be no warpage.

... or keep the air pressure down.

Todd,
All my tins were sandblasted bye my local Mortuary Monument place ...they have been in buisiness for as long as I been alive and know blastin ...they have a huge building for doin vehicle parts up to the size of big rigs ...they did a super job on all my stuff ! , though I payed a bit more to remove the TON of bondo to start ..the Body man doin my paint told me it saved me ALLLOT more than that if he woulda had to deal with the parts before being blasted.
Shop around an talk to people ...that have had sandblasting done to find a place with expierience.
Tim

I am interested in doing it myself. Eastwood now has a setup for about $250 that can soda blast and sand blast. I have thought that I might soda blast the paint, then go back and use aluminum oxide? or sand to clean the rusty spots. Any thoughts?

I use sand for all my blasting. It's cheap and cuts fast without a lot of pressure... but it can get tedious when you have a lot of rust. I use 60 psi on my syphon blaster which would probably drive a pro insane but it works just fine for me.

IMO aluminum oxide is much too fine for rusty sheetmetal.

I have a small pressure pot, and it takes alot bigger compressor than what I expected. My home compressor cannot keep up with the CFM required by the pot. I found a local powder coating place that will blast my parts almost as cheap as I can with my pot. They just work the parts in when they are slow. Works well for both parties.

I'm thinking about a compressor in the 15 CFM range, what CFM is yours?

Todd,
If your thinking of a blaster you'll first need a compressor because a blaster really eats up air. I got a 7hp, 60gal, 17cfm,2stage, I.R.comp. just to get some blasting done. I had a smaller one but I would have to stop and let it catch up when blasting.
I've been using a small Sears unit which holds 50lbs of sand for years. It was cheap to buy and works good.
I can't say it works well on real heavy rust,but that kind of rust I feel needs to be done with a commercial type blaster, which when I run into it pays to have done because of all the sand I would eat up doing it myself.
Stripping I feel is done with various methods- chemical,media,sand blasting, each used when that method works the best for the job at hand and I've used them all.
Dan

glasman,

Here is a compressor that is on my short list.

Eaton 5hp 60 gal 2 stage 17cfm @ 175psi

There are so many out there an they are rated at various psi levels, it is hard to figure out how to compare sometimes.

Here is an IR I have looked at. It is priced similarly, but shipping is "free". It has a lower cfm rating though.

IR 5 hp 60 gal 2 stage 14.7cfm @ 175 psi