VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood Media Blasting 41 body

Just a little update on my media blasting the 41 body. I am using (fine/medium fine) coal slag from Tractor Supply.

Evaluating my first 2 pictures you can see I am using a respirator. The respirator provides complete eye coverage,and is connected to a compressor in the garage away from any possible dust. I have 50 foot of hose for the respirator so it provides me a lot of maneuverability. A garbage bag attached to the respirator keeps sand out of my hair and from getting into my shirt. I have ear protection (extremely important), and am also wearing a green stocking under the respirator mask to further protect my scalp from getting my hair caught in the buckles of the respirator and the media. A long sleeved shirt and a a good pair of leather gloves are also necessary.

My shop apron covers the respirator hose and keeps a lot of the media from accumulating in my clothing. I also have rubber boots on with my pant legs outside of the boots.

I do my work early in the morning and work for about 2 hours. That is the coolest part of the day, and if you have a breeze that is a real bonus. It is nice to have the breeze to carry away the dust from the media. It takes me an additional twenty minutes to set up and half an hour to clean up.

I try to reclaim my media by covering my grass with large tarps. I usually spread them out about 10 to 20 feet from the sides of my work area. I run all my used media through a screen sifter and store it in 5 gallon plastic buckets for reuse. I only fill half of the bucket to keep it light enough to easily handle. For every bag of media I use about a quarter floats away in the breeze as dust, or lands in my yard.

I will add more info to my post tomorrow.

Thanks, Mike

Mike what compressor are you using with your blaster

I have to ask, and this topic is quite concerning as it's not something that many people think about. But, just to clarify what I'm reading, are you breathing air that's supplied by your compressor? The concerning part is that I'm hoping you've got an excellent oil/water separator? Otherwise your breathing in the nasty stuff.

I've got a full face supplied air respirator as well, by Sata, but the air is quite filtered by the time it gets to my lungs. There is an air dryer on the compressor along with oil/water filters, then another air dryer after the air enters the paint shop. Where the line comes into the booth there's another canister filter where the hose hooks up to. I take the hose and connect it to yet *another* filter pack on my belt. The hood has a line that plugs into one part of that filter, and there is a 4-5' hose that my gun connects to. Yes, quite the setup, but it's what's really required for a production shop. Plus that heavily filtered air makes for really nice restorations!

Better safe than sorry!

My compressor is a 5 horse 90 gallon unit. It does a good job of providing a consistent air pressure for media blasting. It does run most of the time and is noisy. Best practices would be to isolate it out of my work area so it is not heating up my garage or causing me to wear ear protection. My garage is very well insulated and morning temperatures are now in the lower 60's so that is when I have done my body blasting. I start around 7 AM and am done about 10. As I said in my first post it usually takes me about 20 minutes to set up and 30 to put everything away.

I have had my compressor for 12 years. I run a lot of power tools off of it, and a 48 inch sandblast cabinet. I lack good hand strength and all the other aging things that go along with being 67 so an impact wrench has been extremely helpful. My compressor is one thing I could not be without in my garage.

I did a lot of planning on how I would layout my system, the piping I would use, and filters I wanted to remove contaminants and moisture. I never assumed I would do any painting. If you look carefully at the picture of the compressor you can see it rests on very thick industrial rubber pads, is hooked to galvanized piping, and where the towel is I have a rubber hose so the vibration of the compressor is not transfer to the piping or floor. I also have a fan that I have been using to help cool the compressor motor for this big project. I rarely run my compressor more than an hour so I am being extra cautious with this project. I am even leaving my two large windows wide open for cooling.







This is the air compressor I am using for my air supply on my mask. It was not designed for professional body shop work. I do think it is safe when used with the proper air hose. By proper I mean one specifically designed for it. A friend lent me a unit that lacked the hose. I assumed for 20 dollars I could just buy one at Lowes for $20. I was wrong. The hose off-gassed a strong odor and I rationalized that if it smelt bad it probably would be bad for you.

The unit I am using is a friend's who has a lot of body experience including painting his own cars. He has used it for 10 years. I would recommend it for hobby usage. I see them occasionally on Craiglist or ebay for very reasonable prices. Do get one only with a full mask so you are also protecting your eyes.






Time to get onto other things. My next posts will cover what I have found under the paint on my body.

Best wishes, Mike

Thanks so much Mike I am getting ready to set up a good blasting system so this is very valuable information for me

chef-chevy

Please give me a call if you want to have me go through my system with you (989-832-7634). Lots of pro and cons to the equipment you purchase and the layout of the piping. We might even want to start a post of what experiences others have had?

Thanks, Mike

As I get closer I might just take you up on that Mike, thanks for the kind offer

The biggest surprise I uncovered from the media blasting was that there appeared to be a bullet hole between the trunk lid and the rear window?



I was also surprised to see how bad the passenger side cowl was rusted and damaged. Several years ago I replaced the rocker panel and bottom of the cowl. I assumed that I had taken care of most of the damage, that clearly was not the case. I will use the West System to repair the area. I can access the inside of the cowl so can repair the area on both sides.





The driver's side roof post also showed a repair. I am assuming that this is from a spot light that was eliminated when the car was repainted brown. It was originally painted #290 Ruby Maroon.



The last surprise was the condition of my floor. I had painted it with POR 15 assuming I would never media blast it. As I was working on the inside of the fire wall I began to rethink my earlier work. The POR 15 did seem to be doing its job, but I noticed a few spots where it had lifted over the years. I assume I had not gotten all the contaminants removed where I found the problems? I soon realized that it would be a forever job to media blast off the POR 15 so decided to use a window scraper to remove it. It was a lot of work but I am glad I did it. Removing all the rust will make for a permanent repair. The body shop can epoxy prime the floor when they are doing the body and I can put the West System or body filler over the pitted areas.



I will update my repairs another time.

Thanks, Mike