dustless blasting

I took my truck cab to the point you see in the avatar with Scotchbrite discs. You have to keep moving and watch for overheating the metal but it worked great. The inside and firewall were going to be hard to get stripped due to stampings and angles so I had a dustless blaster come. I moved the truck a good 60' from the garage, spread plastic on the driveway. When the job was done there was abrasive on the roof of my garage, 2-3" built up on the plastic and beyond, the hood and doors were either warped or dented (haven't gotten to them yet), and even after rinsing the cab, blowing out all the pillars, vent passages, windshield wiper channels (including putting a hose extension on a small diameter air gun so I could get to the end of blind areas and blow the abrasive back out), tipping the cab on its firewall, shaking it a bunch while replacing cab corners, floor panels, steps, rockers, as recently as last week when I was getting ready for primer sand was still falling out. Then there were the areas where it caked and had to be knocked out. Never again on something this far apart. They talk about not wearing a mask, that guy was covered in abrasive. They can claim the glass abrasive won't give you silicosis but I'll be damned if I'm going to breath that stuff. The pic of the blaster is from the 2nd floor of the garage to give you an idea how far the abrasive bounced. The 2nd pic is the cab finally in primer inside and out. The primer is about 2 parts gray, 1 part black. The actual color is slightly more gray than the pic but definitely has a blue cast to the color. Now if I could just find a stock car or truck color to match the primer I'd be a happy man.
 

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Check out late Toyota truck grays... I think I've seen some late GM trucks in an interesting gray. The color always catches my attention for some reason. May be a Nissan truck that I've seen locally...
 
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Check out late Toyota truck grays... I think I've seen some late GM trucks in an interesting gray. The color always catches my attention for some reason. May be a Nissan truck that I've seen locally...
Thanks. I've seen some "battleship grays" out there, 14 Dodge Ceramic gray has some blue (which is what I'm looking for) but haven't quite convinced myself it's what I want.
 
Hey I saw a new Gooberu today in a nice grey! ...may have been a subaru. :p
To me, much better to see the color on a complete car.
 
Hey I saw a new Gooberu today in a nice grey! ...may have been a subaru. :p
To me, much better to see the color on a complete car.
I think I know the color you saw, "Cool Grey Kahki. There's a 19 Kia color "Performance Blue" which is similar but more blue than gray. The local paint store doesn't have the mix for that one yet though. I agree, seeing the color on a complete vehicle makes it a lot easier to decide. There was a Volvo truck color a couple years ago that looked real close to what I want but that information is more confusing than car colors.
 
I got around to doing the rest of the car.



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I had a few issues with some fisheyes, but overall its ok. I need to work the panels anyways, so the Epoxy was really just to keep it from rusting at this point.
 
Hello Gentleman and maybe Ladies to.
Nice to meet you. I'm new here and this is my first post. I'm Chris.
I don't restore autos as you do meaning I don't bondo, deal with dents or paint.
I'm a welder, fabricator and sandblaster that owns my own business. I do dustless wet blasting and traditional dry blasting.
https://after-hours-welding.com/

While browsing around and snooping, I noticed many of you had opinions on sandblasting. Some of your opinions are correct and some not so correct. But I did notice most all of you wanted to know the truth of the matter. If you'll forgive me for appearing egotistical, I'm somewhat of a true expert in many of these matters and have a long public track record on my performance delivered.

Because I do dustless blasting and traditional blasting, which is super rare, I could do a auto either way. There is no price difference as they both cost the same. So I would not care what you chose. I love dustless blasting but not on vehicles or metal. If your a potential client I would try to convince you to get dry traditional blasting done on your vehicle. Unless it is only the outside your stripping.

As many of you have already noted here and discovered from personal experience, dustless will pack the nooks, crannies, corners and holes of your vehicle with wet mud that does not want to come out later. I blast 99% of autos with dry traditional blasting so when I'm done, I take my 1" air hose pushing 185 CFM at 100 PSi, and I blow all the sand/abrasive/glass/media out of my customers vehicles.

And I do not charge for this. I just want happy repeat customers. Yes, I can push 185 CFM (cubic feet a minute) while still maintaining 100 PSI with no pressure drop. It takes me 5 minutes to blow ALL the abrasive out of your vehicle so all you have to do is apply your coating of choice. I want happy customers in case you didn't notice from my reviews.

I had one customer who was convinced from Dustless Blasting Brand videos that traditional blasting generates heat, so he insisted I shoot his dismantled vehicle with wet abrasive. He didn't want to listen to me and I didn't want to argue so I did it his way.

OMG, what a mess. He had mud stuck everywhere inside his vehicle. Of course it wont blow out because its to sticky. So he took a power washer to it and rinsed it out which washed off the Hold Tite 102 and he got flash rust everywhere. In 5 minutes his vehicle was orange from flash rust. Then many of his holes held water puddled and just kept on rusting. And it still did not get the abrasive out of all the holes. The ricochet effect will put mud in places you nearly cant imagine. Whats your worst nightmare? I will never have sex on a beach again. Its something I will never forget nor repeat.

Does traditional dry blasting generate heat?

Does traditional dry blasting warp sheet metal?

Actually those are the wrong questions to be asking as those answers do nothing to protect your auto from warping.

Yes it generates heat. But how much? And what effect does heat have?

Yes dry blasting can warp sheet metal. But so can wet dustless blasting.

How much heat will dry blasting generate? If the sheet metal is 80 F degrees in ambient air before dry blasting, it will elevate to 120 F. So what? Are you afraid of 120 degrees? I guess you better never park your car in the sun again as it will bake and warp.

When metal gets hot it expands and when it cools it shrinks. Heat is not the cause of warping. Metal is always changing shape as temperature changes. But its not enough to notice and its not permanent because eventually it cools and goes back to its original shape. So yes the sun can warp your car, but if its not enough to notice, do you really care?

Does shooting it with glass protect it while shooting it with sand damage it?

No. Neither is true.

I hate to say it, but size matters. Dam, I never thought I would admit that one. o_O

How big is the hammer your hitting it with? How hard is the impact? How much energy are you transferring with each blow? How big is your point? How deep are you driving it in? The last girl that asked me that, I never called her back. I knew the next question would be, how much money do you have in the bank and what do you earn?

Ok, lets examine the real point. No, this ones not dirty. Your just dirty minded and you know it.
The real point is: Let me drive 2 thumbtacks into your leg thigh. How much swelling did it cause from the displacement of the point being driven in to full depth? Nothing that you can notice. We're not talking about pain here so quit your whining and wincing.

Now let me drive in 50 railroad tie spikes in to full depth into your thigh. Now we have massive displacement and your thigh will swell/warp. Now its very noticeable.

Is it sand or is it glass?
Is it wet or is it dry?
Is it warm or is it cold?

It doesn't matter.

How big are your nails/balls/grit/hammer?

That's the 1st million dollar question.

How big is the point and how deep are you driving it in and what displacment can you expect, is what matters. When she told me that I knew I was in trouble. :oops:

Grit size. Is it fine or is it course? A larger abrasive chunk has more momentum, it carry's more energy, it drives in deeper, it displaces more metal when it punctures into the surface as it creates a hole/profile. Big grit carries more potential for damage. Grit is a single piece of abrasive in case you didn't know.

Was it a glancing blow as it chipped off a little paint and rust, or was it a direct hit while it moved the paint and rust aside as it continued to drive straight into the metal deep as it caused much displacement?

Gentleman, that is the 2nd million dollar question. I cant believe I'm going to teach my competition how to stop warping cars. I'm such a F...ing idiot for revealing this. Just shoot me now and put me out of my misery.

Fine small light weight abrasive shot at a 45 degree angle will remove paint and rust and shot at 70 PSi will not warp metal.

Course large heavy weight abrasive shot straight on at high PSI (100 or up) will penetrate the top of the metal, displace it moving the metal outwards to the side causing waves.

There you go. The secret of the universe. How to warp metal or prevent warping.

Heating metal will cause it to expand and warp, but when it cools down it will shrink and go back to its original shape.
Displacing metal pushing it aside powerfully will expand it causing it to warp, but it will now be permanent and will not go back into its original shape.

There, did I answer some of your questions? Ask on. Maybe I have another answer, maybe not.

Next thing. How can you tell a good automotive sandblasting service from a bad one. Who will warp your auto and who wont?

All of us guys in business need efficiency and fast turnaround to make money to pay for our blast rigs. We will all use as much course abrasive as possible as its much faster. We all want to get more done in less time don't we?
A true professional will carry 2-3 pallets of abrasive on our rig so we can swap abrasive size upon demand.
A amateur can only carry one pallet of abrasive, and chances are high its course large abrasive.

Also a real professional can shoot wet or dry upon demand. Dustless Brand blasting rigs cost less money so they are the most common purchase to new people jumping into blasting business. Plus they will finance them. Dustless Brand can only shoot wet mud. Sometimes I love wet mud when I'm stripping paint off brick or concrete. But I would never be caught dead only being able to shoot wet only.

Traditional dry rigs of my caliber cost more money to purchase, plus they wont provide financing. So amateurs nearly never buy a dry blaster because they don't have that kind of money.

So who do you want to hire?

Ask your potential blasting contractor to be specific and tell you exactly what he does to prevent metal warping. If he does not tell you all the things I've pointed out here, then he does not know how to prevent warping and you need to run. Run fast away from him unless your a gambler and enjoy determining your results with the flip of a coin.


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Or for those of you that want to watch it on youtube so you can read or leave comments,

I know some of you may wish to hire me, but please forgive me as I'm not always available for little blast jobs as autos, as frequently I'm busy with restoring large commercial steel staircases that need lots of welding and sandblasting. Sometimes I cant blast an auto for months. Sometimes I can fit them in within a week or two. So don't get your hopes up. I hate disappointing people. But you might be the lucky one, who knows?

So have I helped any of you? I would hate for all this writing to be a waste.


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Just relax. Don't take life too seriously.

It was nice meeting you all.
Chris
 
heres a video of blasting

Looks to me like he is a beginner because he's shooting it at such a steep angle in hopes to prevent warping, which I cant blame him for. But he's shooting a zone that cant warp to start with because its not large and not flat enough to start with. Its the doors, the roof, the hood and the trunk that need protecting. The large flat thin skins. The rest of it wont warp even when shooting straight on and with heavy large abrasive.
 
So sorry to hear that. I hate it when amateurs give my industry a bad repuation so you dont know who you can trust and who not to trust.

I should never say this in public
But 90% of the old vets I have restored over the years I sand blast the door jambs, clean and spray two coats epoxy and paint.

You are correct with people that don't know what they're doing, I saw a road runner deck lid distroyed with soda and did not think it was possible.
 
we didnt have much experience and didnt warp anything. so we must have had that magic combo....Im very pleased with the way it turned out. My only complaint is the cleanup of media that got under and in the car. I spent a good amount of time with a shop vac cleaning media. If I were to do this again, it would be a rotisserie setup, with nothing else in the car.
 
You are correct with people that don't know what they're doing, I saw a road runner deck lid destroyed with soda and did not think it was possible.
Wow. That is hard to do. He really must of had no clue what he was doing.
 
we didnt have much experience and didnt warp anything. so we must have had that magic combo....Im very pleased with the way it turned out. My only complaint is the cleanup of media that got under and in the car. I spent a good amount of time with a shop vac cleaning media. If I were to do this again, it would be a rotisserie setup, with nothing else in the car.
I hear yah. I face sand clean up so much with being a professional mess maker and all, that I bought a $3,500 vacuum that is so powerful you cant plug it in a home. It has to run off my generator.

Now once you have the right tools, it isn't so bad. On one job I put 19,500 lbs of sand in a parking lot the size of a football field. It took me 7days of blasting giant equipment to make that mess. After I spent that sand, then I had to clean it up. All of this is spent sand being cleaned up. New sand comes in paper bags. My vacuum will suck it up and then dump 60lbs into clear plastic bags automatically.

That large red canister is my vacuum. It sucks it up and then dumps it out the bottom already bagged. It has a 50' suction hose. It sucks 285 CFM. I remember the days without the right tools. Oh so miserable. I feel for you.

This is how you want to get the sand out of your vehicle on a rotisserie. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gVlkltWRIFf6tKLKM2wB870NtrhKWhmo/view?usp=sharing

And then have a air hose like mine to further blow it it.

But you did good. You didn't warp anything. I'm proud of you.
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I feel sorry for you because you probably were not getting paid to clean it up. Thats the part that sucks.
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