Spent all day sandblasting

[FORDification]

I've found that sandblasting will go MUCH faster if you prep the piece first, which means using some attachments in an angle grinder to strip as much as you can first. Then what little bit's left will come right off with the sandblaster. The blaster WILL take care of everything without any prior stripping, but it's much slower. I'll bet I'd have had to use at least 5-6 tankfuls of sand to blast the rear side of each fender without doing a little pre-stripping. Since I did, I was able to do it with one, which also saves wear and tear on the blaster unit and the compressor too. I probably spent 20-30 minutes with each fender prior to sandblasting, and then another 30 minutes blasting it.....but if I'd tried ONLY sandblasting, it would have probably taken at least a couple hours to do the same job. (It's the factory primer that really slows things down....man, that stuff is on there good!)

With a smaller portable sandblaster like the Harbor Freight units that us backyard tinkerers would use with a 120 PSI air compressor, you don't have to worry about warping any sheetmetal. There's not enough pressure to do that. It's when you start using the larger 175 PSI dual-stage compressors that you'll run into problems with warped sheetmetal.

I haven't touched the outer part of my fenders yet, but when I'm ready....yes, I'll probably be sandblasting them, after a few quick trips over them with the composite stripper wheel in the angle grinder. I just find that sandblasting sheetmetal does a really good job of stripping/cleaning, plus giving it a nice texture for the primer to ahere to.

[thebttmline]

Thanks for the info Keith. I'll probably experiment and try both ways, but it is nice to know what has worked well for others.

I lucked into a good deal on an Ingersoll Rand two stage compressor about 4-5 years ago. 80 gallon tank. 175 PSI. I forget the max CFM rating, but it is pretty high. Sounds like I will need to be careful with the sheet metal.

Steve