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April 10, 2005 SandblastingI'm back to work on the Buick! This weekend was a perfect combination of nice weather, an opening in my home remodeling schedule and sheer desperation to get back to work on the Buick. I was starting to get a little anxious without my therapy sessions out in the garage. Unfortunately, therapy today was about the worst job in auto restoration: sandblasting. I haven't been able to locate a sandblasting company locally that is willing to do the job, so I decided I had to do it myself (Atom Blasting raised their prices to the point where they're essentially saying, "We don't want to sandblast cars anymore."). Since the trunk is where I've been focusing all my attention lately, I started there.
The trunk floor was heavily coated with tar, making blasting a very slow process. It also uncovered a lot of pinhole perforation that needs attention, as I expected. The worst areas were the two body mounts--the passenger's side was bad on the exterior while the driver's side was totally ruined.
Then I moved underneath and blasted the bottom of the trunk so that I can finish the repairs easily with clean metal top and bottom.
The hardest thing about blasting? The cheap hood that came with my sandblaster had a soft plastic lens that was easily scratched. By the time I was done, I may as well have been blasting with my eyes closed--I couldn't see a thing. You can tell that I couldn't see a thing because I missed the entire side of one of the gas tank braces in the photo above. I'll have to hit it again next time I get the rig out. I tried polishing it several times but it was a temporary fix at best. Eventually I was just aiming at the dark spots and hoping that it was rust I as hitting and not a hole, but I just couldn't tell. What's the alternative? I also blasted the left front corner of the rocker panel where there is considerable rust damage. This will be the next area I tackle after finishing the trunk.
All that clean, fresh metal looks great, so the last thing I did was hose down all the bare metal with some Picklex-20 to prevent rust. I think I'll tackle blasting the rest of the car myself. It'll take a few weeks, it'll make one heck of a mess, but it won't cost me more than the sand ($2 for an 80 pound bag at the local hardware store) and time. The rest of the car should be easier to blast than the trunk since it isn't coated with tar paper. I hope my neighbors are up for it... Previous Restoration Day E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net This page accessed Thanks, Fidget! |
