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November
23, 2004 Trunk Work Part 9I finally got my sandblaster last Friday and gave it a try on Sunday. And I failed. Apparently the sand I was using was too coarse and it was clogging the blaster. It is a cheap unit (well, it uses cheap parts, anyway) and one of the ball valves broke almost immediately. Unfortunately, it was an oddball 3/8" size, and finding another one was a story in itself involving Home Depot, security guards and a police car, but that's a story for another time. I picked up some ultra-fine sand, sifted it and loaded up the blaster. After some fiddling with the mixing valve and turning the pressure down to 80 PSI, it was good to go. I probably would have lost my mind if I had failed again.
I treated the bare, pitted metal with Picklex-20. I also noticed a few holes in the brace and welded them closed, cut off some hanging pieces of sheet metal and remaining spot welds and ground down a few rough spots. Then I took a hammer and dolly and straightened the flange around the edge.
The last step was painting the inside of the brace with Zero-Rust. Since it will be enclosed by the trunk floor, this is my only chance to protect it. With any luck, there won't be any problems in the future. I also had a broken-off bolt in the brace that I had to deal with before painting it and sealing it up. Once again I successfully used my weld-a-nut-onto-the-broken-stub-of-the-screw trick to remove the offending bolt.
Next I'll install the brace and start recreating the floor on top of it and hopefully get the trunk area finished over the holiday weekend. I also have to say that it's really nice to be able to work outside in shirt sleeves two days before Thanksgiving--in Cleveland! Previous Restoration Day E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net This page accessed Thanks, Fidget! |
