Engine bay metal prep

jelco

Promoted Users
I’ve power washed, wire wheeled, welded holes in firewall, degreased twice. Next I’ll sand down a little more with poly carbide and 80 grit.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to sand blast the frame or remove the body from the frame
All I had was a gas-less flux welder with min/max setting. There are some pin holes in a few spots. The pinholes should be taken care of with the primer, right?

Is it even worth it to paint with good quality paint if I’m not able to get in the tights spots to remove dirt/grease?

Photo before removing fenders and before welding
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From that point, I would have quite a few hours of hand scrubbing with red scotchbrite, wire toothbrushes and spray brake cleaner, there is factory primer left everywhere, still grease and all those cracks and crevices. Rotary brushes polish the rust, primer/paint and grease film so that it looks like bare metal. When it's really bare metal be sure to look for micro hairline cracks in the frame around holes and mounts.
 
I ended up getting a portable sandblaster and made my own hood to contain the sand when I blasted the hood lever, radiator support and the headlight housings since I had them off the fender.
I’m planning on doing another pass on it but how meticulous should I be with all of this?
And I was planning on briefly wiping down with 710 solvent in case my fingers put grease marks anywhere.
 

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If you are going to give them another pass, no need to wipe with anything unless there is any oil or grease on the parts. I usually clean parts like that with Dawn on a scrub brush and water before blasting. At this point, get some latex gloves, dust the parts again, blow them off and epoxy immediately. Never touch bare blasted metal with bare hands.
 
I may try to take 80 grit to some of the areas instead of blasting. It’s very time consuming with a 20 gallon air compressor and reloading the 40lb blaster. I should have paid someone to do it.
 
I can see where blasting with a 20 gallon compressor would be very time consuming, but you have 90% of it done. Most of that would only need a light pass. It sounds like you had the material flow too high if you had to reload the blaster to do those parts. Turn the pressure down to 40-60 psi and open the material just enough to keep a steady flow. http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.php?threads/blasting-advice.7812/ Sanding parts like those is much more time consuming than blasting to get similar results.
 
You’re right. The harbor freight blaster makes it difficult to control the air and blasting material (used black Diamond coal slag from tractor supply, 20-60 grit I think, $10 per bag). Constant fiddling with it and reloading.


 
Harbor Freight equals junk in most cases.
I had one given to me but ended up changing all the valves on it. I have a 2 stage 80 gallon compressor though and that helps immensely.
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After media blasting I blow everything off with compressed air with fans running to move the dust out of the booth.
Then spray two coats of epoxy mixed 1:1 using a 1.4 tip:

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Talk about hitting every square inch! Or square millimeter! Looks nice. Harbor freight is junk but it was cheap and nearby. I had to change valves and reapply Teflon, get a different nozzle. After all the hassle it would have been easier to pay someone but I also got this stuff so I could try to blast the frame and lower part of the firewall.

Is the epoxy that glossy? Someone said they thought it looked close to stock under hood black. I was hoping it was more satin then what I see above.
 
This is what the radiator support looks like after another pass, some pitting but it doesn’t look significant to me. I imagine you guys are less meticulous with radiator supports compared to fenders and other parts of the body, right?
 

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Jelco, do remember one thing. This epoxy doesn't like to be hosed on. Those parts have tons of corners crevices and divots, I would have no problem spraying them as they are, as it's getting to the point where you're at 95% rust free and the time to get further gets to be nerve wracking. But my point is to spray your first coats lightly, maybe even your first three coats. I have found if you try to get wet coats on, especially the first two or three, you can get cratering, and with carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands I really hate having to sand out cratering in tiny crevices angles and irregular surfaces. There is a little learning curve, and once you get your own technique worked out with this epoxy and with tips from this forum you'll never want to use anything else. Don't spray it dry, but if you get cratering it's probably from overlapping a spot several times, or otherwise putting it on a bit too heavy. If this happens let that coat dry for an hour, put a couple more lighter coats on with plenty dry time between coats and you'll have enough material in those spots to sand out flat without having to re-coat. But since this is a fairly high build primer, when you get it sanded out flat, like '68 said it's gonna make those parts look even better than new, and they will be ultra protected and have a great base for whatever topcoat you want to use. I prefer a black topcoat tbh... but if you can get a good looking last coat you can leave the epoxy as a topcoat. ...Light coats first ;)
 
I’m definitely tired of sandblasting.
I need to re-read the proper technique for spraying paint. I have a harbor freight gun but I don’t know what kind of headache that will cause.

What do you guys like to use for the underside of the inner fenders, a truck bed liner?
 
It only took me about an hour to sandblast the frame and firewall after replacing the harbor freight deadman nozzle and several days to sandblast all of my other parts. I would have sandblasted the frame again but my googles kept fogging up.
From the pictures does it look good enough or do I need to use ospho for the pitting? I will wipe down with 710 solvent before painting.
I was told I didn’t need a reducer but the gun I have says not to let the paint sit in the gun longer than 5 minutes when not in use. Is that right? I was thinking of spraying/cleaning my gun with reducer in between coats. I also read using 10% reducer in the final epoxy primer coat helps give it a semi-gloss sheen.
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That's what I'm talking about! Good job Jelco. Personally, depending on how tired you are of it, I would lay some epoxy on that. Remember first two or three coats light. I wouldn't use any ospho or etch, and I'll get called out for this but I probably wouldnt use any cleaner either. The texture will eat cloth rags or paper towels and you'll have more trouble trying to get rid of the dandruff. Do wait for another opinion or two but it looks good to me and three or four coats of epoxy will make that look better than new and it will be protected practically forever. And any runs or cratering just wait 30 min between and put a couple medium coats there and it will be enough to sand out flat.
 
I've let epoxy sit in a gun for more than 30 minutes but I usually wash off the air cap before continuing. If you're close to an empty gun I would prob save the remaining in a paper cup and clean the gun before the next spray.
 
I never reduce epoxy unless using as a sealer before base. The biggest variable to the final gloss, I have found, is how wet it is sprayed. The heavier it is sprayed, the more gloss it retains. Humidity and temperature also play a factor. It will not harden in the gun between coats, but out of habit I normally dump it back in a cup and give the gun a quick rinse with reducer. "Google" is getting more fogged up every day. Sorry, I couldn't resist. :)
 
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