Media blasting by a pro questions

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I am about to being a restoration of my 66 Chevy Pickup that has a good amount of rust in the floor of the cab, bottom of doors, rocker panels, etc. and I have some questions.
First thing is I am new to taking apart an automobile at this level, I have fixed up a 63 Chevy II before and removed panels and bumpers and such but the body was in better shape than my truck.
I live in an area where houses are very close together and have a single car garage to do all my work in, so even though I have an 80 gal compressor I am going to have to farm out the media blasting.
The place I was considering is quoting $1200 for the cab and bed and $250 for the frame and is using Starblast.

Questions are:
  1. Is Starblast too agressive for the whole job?
  2. For the frame, what steps need to be taken to keep sand from getting into parts that would be damaged? Meaning things like brakes and drive shafts and such.


Here is my loose plan.
Remove the engine and transmission, and start taking all glass, wiring, gas tank, foam insulation around doors, bench seat, everything in general to just have a cab to blast.
Then figure out who locally is reputable at blasting cars and trucks.I was going to call around to local body shops and see who they use and recommend.
Then figure out how to transport all of the disassembled truck to a media blasting company.

Ive got a lot to learn, but I have made the first step in buying the SPI epoxy primer after hearing a reading such great stuff about it.
http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/Products/2014photos/epoxy primer.jpg

Barry at SPI has been so great to help answer questions, thought I would try the forum for this one and give him a break.:D
 
I know Shine recommends Starblast strongly. I would fully disassemble the frame components, but that's your call.
 
Anything that you want blasted should be completely disassembled. Media will get into every place you never thought possible.
 
Had a 65 Ford pickup that someone had soda blasted and did not take a single thing off of it and i was having problems with media falling out of every crack for 2 years, till I finally sold it. Disassemble anything you can
 
Just got back from visiting the blasting company, I wanted him to look over the truck and tell me what he recommended. He mentioned that if it has bondo on it he will not be blasting all that off but I figure I would be cutting those areas out anyway and patching. The guy that does the wrecker service -which is right next door to them - said he would tow it back and forth from my property for $120 if it was altogether. He said unbolt everything and just finger tighten the bolts back on and once the truck was onsite that I could do the disassembly there.

The blasting fella said that would be fine by him for me to take every part I wanted off and he would have a few guys help me out dismantling and placing it back together loosely but would not allow anyone to help unless I was present and helping. Which is fine by me. The price is still the same, and he said that he was willing to have have one of his guys load one of his flatbeds to help with the shuttle back of any loose panels I wanted to haul vs reassemble free of charge since I live about 3 miles away.

I also checked with a garage I use and trust if they have had any experience with this company and he said he hasnt but has many friends and customers who have and they all say good things. No complaints of warped panels. Also BBB rating they have is A+. Now I just need to figure out how to dismantle this truck without damaging anything or me:)
 
You might be surprised how quickly loose bolts will fall off when it starts bouncing down the road. Its not enough weight to soften the springs on the pick up and certainly not on the wrecker, so make sure to get the bolts as finger tight as you can. I have trailered a lot of project cars and parts cars, and it doesn't take long to learn this.
 
I had the company that did mine put wash primer on also to be safe as I knew it would be a while before I got epoxy on. Best suggestion I read on here was to attack with a leaf blower from every angle possible, that media is a pia to get out of the cavities but well worth the inconvenience. I went 2 hours away with mine as the reputation of the shop is impeccable, there was still a lot of media in it after doing 70 mph for 2 hours. On a side note I am self employed and the bbb is a joke, business pay to be members, it's not a watchdog agency like many believe.
 
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