Sandblasting DIY?

The most important thing to use is caution. Sandblasting can easily warp the sheetmetal into unrepairable ripples.

I went to Lowes and bought bags of sand off their shelve. IIRC it was medium grit playground sand. The pot size is not as important as the size of your air compressor. I have a 60 gal and it was not big enough. It did the job but I was waiting for the compressor to fill up all the time. I used the biggest blaster that Harbor freight had and I recommend buying a couple of their nozzles they are only about 10 bucks but I wore out a couple of them. You may have to scrape your under coating off first. My blaster wouldn't take it off. When and if I do it again I will rent a big commercial size compressor. It would have only taken me a fraction of the time it took me with my 60 gal compressor.

'67 after I scraped the undercoating off:





After I sand blasted the area:





With 1st coat of primer applied:




All of the front end of the engine bay [inside and out], has since been blasted and primed.


I used a Craftsman siphon-feed 120# capacity sand blast hopper [similar to this]:

Campbell Hausfeld 9 Gallon Sand Blaster


My compressor is big enough I never had to stop to wait for it to catch back up so I could continue on:






This is the main reason I bought a large compressor, since I blast a lot more smaller objects --rather than the occaisional large object like a car:




Until fairly recently, objects like drive shafts or rear end housings had to be blasted outside. I made a modification to my [48"] wide cabinet to make it expandable out to 72" with the adaptable 30-gallon drum [by 14½" diameter] add-on:








1960 T-Bird 9-inch rear end housing inside cabinet:








When an object will fit inside the cabinet without the need for the extension, the drum can be removed and the hole capped off with the drum head to keep the blast media from building up in the drum:




Some of the items shown from the '67 that have been through the bead blaster:

Another non-sandblasting method you may want to consider:

73 Mustang Wheel Well Restoration

For smaller parts, I let them sit overnight in a gallon of carb cleaner- then wash with Por15 Marine Clean - then wire brush - then Acid etch with Por15 Metal Ready (which is just Phosphoric Acid) - then finish with etching primer or Por15 converter.

Each method has its pros and cons. Another rust removal option for small parts is electrolysis, but I haven't personally tried that yet.

Platonic Solid said:

Another non-sandblasting method you may want to consider:

...Another rust removal option for small parts is electrolysis, but I haven't personally tried that yet.

Click to expand...

Hmmm...this could be a multi-purpose thing. It could also double as a personal hair removal devise.

ohhh, that 30 gallon drum mod is awesome!