Any Tips on tearing down and preparing for Sandblasting?

[Rodney Nelson]

Hi Pelican Peeps,

I'm starting the tear down process and back dating a front date... on a 1972 T. Please see the pics below for the current state. I was wondering as I get closer what I should be doing?

1. What is the best/cheapest option to get the body on casters?
2. Do I need to remove the undercoating before I take it to get sandblasted?
3. I'm not planning on doing any welding/rust/hole repair until after sandblasting, is that okay, as I'm sure the sandblasting will reveal more issues.
4. It looks like it has a newer front clip, as there are bumper shocks, no battery boxes, but I can't tell where it was patched in?
5. Is there anything I shouldn't remove to get sand blasted?
6. I want to have the inside painted the same color as the outside.
7. It looks as if the doors may not be original either.
8. Still have to remove PO's subaru engine yuck and 915 tranny
9. So I guess I need to remove all of the suspension and brakes?
10. Is there anything I need to worry about getting ready for sand blasting, any suggestions?

Thanks for all of your help,

Rodney

[Jack Stands]

I think you need to remove everything that can be removed as the blasting sand gets into everything and will probably reveal all sorts of other issues you'll need to resolve. Getting leftover blasting media out is another adventure, though I wonder if the Dustless Blasting procedure would be any cleaner? Anyone have any personal experience with that procedure?

[Rodney Nelson]

Hi Jack,

Thank you for your input. Do you have any idea how you go about installing casters that I have been seeing people put on their cars before blasting so they don't have to have the wheels on?

Thanks,

Rodney

[Jack Stands]

Folks seem to either use rotisseries (the best), or otherwise can construct a dolly out of metal pipes or wood to raise the chassis and have casters mounted to allow the chassis to be rolled around. Searching around should provide some pictures of what folks have fabricated.

[Jack Stands]

Here's one example!

[49willard]

I am in the process of restoring a 190sl that I have owned for 40 years. Last winter I started a bare shell restoration starting with mounting on a rotisserie, manually removed all undercoat, sandblasted the bare shell, welded in some patch panels, primed and final painted underside and wheel wells. I thought at first that I would try to do the job without going on a rotisserie. Knowing what I know now, I would not do it without it being totally stripped and on a rotisserie. I managed to borrow one, however, I would buy one if I could not borrow or rent one. If you really want to go the sandblast route, for the reasons indicated above, you absolutely need to go to a bare shell. To do that you have a looong way to go with disassembly. Based on the pictures that you posted, I am not convinced that you should go the full blown disasembly route

[911tracker85]

I am very close to completely gutting my 78. windshield out and about to finish pulling the wiring harness and remove the dash.

getting a rotisserie.

[seafeye]

Are you sure you want to sandblast? You'll have sand coming out of the cracks for years to come. Can you just wire brush the rusted areas. Cut them out then Por-15?

[seafeye]

My car is about as far taken apart as possible. I find sand creeping out every morning.

[mickey356]

There are many threads about this and the seemingly overwhelming opinion is sand is a PITA. Soda blasting is another option to consider, I hear it cleans up easier.
If you get a rotisserie I'd strip it yourself. It's time over money and blasting will cost you $1000 and up. Although I've never had it done, I assume it's like everything....get what you pay for. Blasting can damage...warp metal... I've followed down to the metal builds and there is sooooo much that needs to comes off with blasting, why take it off if it's not completely necessary? You should be able to get to all the common trouble areas with a rotisserie and a grinder with wire brushes.

[T77911S]

there Is different media out there. some removes metal, some does not..

[trond]

my car is being dry ice media blasted as we speak. Only residue is paint dust and does not damage metal in any way. Chose this method to avoid sand or soda creating later issues

[Puma]

+1 what Mickey said. There needs to be absolutely nothing on the car.

I blasted my car and I've spent an outrageous amount of time removing sand and eight months of hammering, vacuuming, and coaxing the sand still keeps coming. I stripped the car down to bare metal on the entire exterior and most interior to avoid warpage. Blaster was careful and it still happened a little. I only spent $500 but I had manually done ninety percent of the job.

Blasting lightly will not remove undercoating. Anything rubberized will just bounce the sand back in your face.

You will have to cut open parts of car to remove sand. Otherwise it will collect moisture and make it rust more/faster.

Blasting will only help you in areas that are difficult to reach. And then you're just making more work for yourself to remove the sand.

This is before the car was blasted.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by trond

my car is being dry ice media blasted as we speak. Only residue is paint dust and does not damage metal in any way. Chose this method to avoid sand or soda creating later issues

Wish there was a dry ice blaster in my area.... apparently no one in the entire Midwest has ever heard of this.
Even high end custom body shops that have clients spend $100,000+ on restorations... and they think I'm crazy when I tell them about it.

How is it that this method isn't used exclusively????

If I had the capital, I'd start my own dry ice blasting business in the entire Midwest area!!

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by Rodney Nelson

How many bowls do you need????

Are you in the bowl making business??

[Puma]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

Wish there was a dry ice blaster in my area.... apparently no one in the entire Midwest has ever heard of this.
Even high end custom body shops that have clients spend $100,000+ on restorations... and they think I'm crazy when I tell them about it.

How is it that this method isn't used exclusively????

If I had the capital, I'd start my own dry ice blasting business in the entire Midwest area!!

I looked into this as there's a guy in my area. He said he couldn't do one car at a time. I had to round up five cars to do at once. This made it a logistical nightmare for me to even consider. If I recall correctly, he needed to make $7,000 on the day to make it worthwhile.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by Puma

I looked into this as there's a guy in my area. He said he couldn't do one car at a time. I had to round up five cars to do at once. This made it a logistical nightmare for me to even consider. If I recall correctly, he needed to make $7,000 on the day to make it worthwhile.

Which just doesn't make sense... as some shops out in Cali charge about $1500 for an entire undercarriage dry ice treatment.

To get a dry ice blaster and everything you need, including the dry ice is about $10,000.
And I'd bet once these custom rebuild/chop shops realize how much cleaner dry ice is, they'd ALL be falling over to get one in their own shop.

I've seen the mess that a sand/media blaster creates... absolutely NUTS that anyone would choose this over dry ice.

[Dpmulvan]

A good dry ice set up will cost you a lot more than $10,000.

[don gilbert]

Dont use sand, use this stuff called "black beauty". Its ground up coal slag and very jagged and abrasive. Just a simple pass with a rented comercial grade blaster take off everything, and will not get hot because you dont have to hold the nozzle in one place. Did my whole car myself in a couple of hr. I think I used around 10 bags, at 7.50 a bag.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

A good dry ice set up will cost you a lot more than $10,000.

nope.... already looked into it. machine and dry ice was $10k.