Sandblasting

[joe newsom]

Has anyone sandblasted or used any other media for cleaning chassis and engine bay before paint ?

 

 

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[Careless]

yes.

what would you like to know?

[wheee!]

many, many people.... My thread has a lot of info.

[joe newsom]

yes.
what would you like to know?

What media was best? I have heard it can cause damage.


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[newtonhubcap]

Depends what you have to remove. Rust best to use black Beauty very aggressive but lives to eat rust. For cleaning a surfaces, glass beads work extremely well. Never try to blast to bare metal at one time. Take it off as if you were undressing Rachelle Welch, nice and slow!

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[Careless]

53 minutes ago, joe newsom said:

What media was best? I have heard it can cause damage.


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soda blast for the entire body, and ask your sandblaster what he would use to remove heavier spots with rust.

remove all sound deadening and seam sealer before sending it for blasting.

the easiest way is to talk to a sandblaster that has done this before and save yourself the trouble of the guessing game. they will know what to do and how much it will cost you.

[zspert]

I have used plastic media exclusively for many years. It is as light as a feather so can be easily removed from nooks and crannies using compressed air. Soda, when the residue isn't completely removed, can cause issues and is denser than plastic making the bits a problem to remove from the recesses. Sand, nothing but problems, don't go there.

[siteunseen]

I only have one supplier local to me with anything, Tractor Supply. I've tried the black stuff, too rough. Glass beads work the best in my opinion just ease into the surface getting closer as you need to. I have a moisture separator out of the compressor and a smaller one before the tool. My 60 gallon runs constantly while "sand blasting". Lots of moisture created all along. Good luck.

[87mj]

For what it is worth, I have an old series 1 I am restoring.  My body mechanic blasted the inside, underneath and engine bay. Those things turned out fine.  He didn't want to blast the body for fear of damaging it.  He was very incompetent so I am glad he chose not to blast the body and sanded it instead. 

[zspert]

Sand, very risky. I only use plastic media

[inline6]

I have used Play sand... yes Play sand with good results.  Play sand is a finer grain (smaller) than is oftentimes recommended for sand blasting.  You may want to check out my restoration thread and pictures.  The sand that is typically used is larger grain, more jagged, and is very likely to cause panel warpage.  That said, sand is too dangerous because of silicosis.  Look it up.  Basically long term exposure will cause a build up of particles that are too small for your lungs to do anything with other than trap.  Lung capacity is negatively impacted.  Using masks (various types) is not sufficient protection.   Glass beads, as far as I know, do not have the same problem.  They are finer still than Play sand though.  I don't have experience with soda blasting or dry ice blasting.  Dry ice might be a really good option if it is available to you.

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by inline6

[dutchzcarguy]

11 hours ago, inline6 said:

sand is too dangerous because of silicosis.

Yes i know .. but i found out that if you use silversand (very fine sand) and a high pressure washer with a special tool on it you can wet-sand the part.. i used it on alu-rims and it works very good. Only thing is you need a lot of sand for just one rim.. You are left with a lot wet sand on the floor that needs to get dry again before you can use it again.. 

I'm brainstorming to make a cabinet were i can use that special tool and use wet very liquid sand/water.. to blast more rims.. (i have about 26 rims that need a clean-up! 🙂 ) 

So the problem is that special tool on my pressure washer needs very dry sand, and i wonder if i can feed it with very wet sand so i can let it circulate..  

It has pro's and cons..  wet sand is not dusty and saves your lungs i think? the bad thing is if you do steel it needs to get blow dryed fast or it will rust again..

Here some results.. (did these with water and silversand about 10 ltr/min and around i guess 30-40 bar  (like 450-600 psi?) (My pressurewasher is around 140 bar. but the tool reduces that because of the bigger hole in the outlet)

 

The one on the left was to far gone and just a test peace