Anyone ever SAND blast their truck bed? I do mean sand blast-I understand media blasting would be better but its unavailable in the area. How did it tolerate it? IE any warpage from the process?
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Anyone ever SAND blast their truck bed? I do mean sand blast-I understand media blasting would be better but its unavailable in the area. How did it tolerate it? IE any warpage from the process?
Took mine down to a monument company where they make headstones. Sandblasted the whole thing, top, bottom and all sides. It sure took off the crud too. It is thick enough to tollerate it without any ill effects except it's a very convoluted and angular surface to re-shoot during painting. I'm still finding places the painter missed, like the pockets and under the rails.
The rest of the truck was also blasted, all except for the hood and inner door panels. We both thought they were too thin to try it on.
yes the bed will take regular sandblasting however when you paint you will want it to be off so you can move it around and get paint to everywhere when I did a bed primed the bottom let it dry then flipped it an primed the top then all over agian that way w/ the paint, doing the bottom first allowed the visible side to get the best finish
As long as there aren't any spots that look heavily scaled to the point of near rust-through, you should be OK. We've used sand to blast a few vehicles and they turned out fine. You will quickly find out where the weak spots are in your sheet metal!
It depends too, on what type of sand you use too. The darker brown stuff like they use for making mortar is very coarse and abrasive and will remove even good metal with enough pressure and dwelling on one spot. Play sand is finer (and cleaner) and will not do as much damage if an area is rough to start with. Black Beauty, a slag product works well too, but can be tough on softer metals like aluminum.
Thanks guys-The beds solid-Just wanted some feedback on others experience. Looks thick enough to sandblast but again thought I'd bounce it off others who may have done it.
Bingo .... I sandblasted mine and had similar issues with missed spots without paint. Under the rails is the biggest issue I had too. That and in the antenna/bed cover well.Quote:
Originally Posted by fng
You guys might know this, but some might not. Make sure you coat the underside of the rail, that we all know, but the pockets will rust out quick if not painted. I had to rebuild all 6 pockets on a bed I'm using. After removing the pockets in layers, I found that the rust appears to form from condensate that gets drawn in between the layers of the steel that forms the pocket. On mine after the truck was painted I taped off the outside of the pocket and on the open bottom ones I placed some cardboard, then coated the living %^& out of the with primer and paint. So much so that after I was done spraying I could go in side with a small acid brush and work the primer and the paint back up to the top and to the underside, it helped to be able to bend the brush into a 90 degree handle.
Good luck, ain't this fun?
I find it funny that ain't ain't in the dictionary, but it requires punctuation.
Go figure.
I just brought my bed to a powdercoating company. They bake the bed at a temperature that melts the paint/makes it flake off and then they sandblasted the entire thing and it looks great. $350 to do the entire bed, sides, underneath etc.
I keep hearing about places that have ovens big enough for frames and boxes-never seen one however. I think they have PC'd frames on Overhaulin'. In all the little areas that never see the light of day (such as between the cab front and the fenders) I've been using the Eastwood rust conversion system. I bought the full frame kit and a couple extra sealer cans. I've been pretty lucky-this truck has less rust than I've ever worked with before. I wire wheeled the front axle and it looks brand new after paint. DNR must have had it squireled away somewhere.
a couple tips.....
never touch the bed with bare hands after blasting.
blow off parts with air hose.
vacume the area to pickup sand alot......
always shoot the bed with a heavy coat of cheap laquer thinner ( while stood up ) before painting as there is dust left on it after the blast even with a trip home in the
wind.
go buy one of those small paint roller from lowes to do the parts you cant spray like under the bed top rails.
do all body repairs before blasting...
stand bed on gate end to paint bottom and top then lay it down to finish. alot easyer to get to it.
BE READY TO PAINT WHEN YOU GET IT BACK....4 SURE
bob
I agree with Bob. Be clean, and be ready to paint! I always find that if I do the parts that are hardest to reach first, it makes the rest seem like a breeze. All the flat panels go pretty quickly anyway.
Airbrushes can also be a helpful tool as well. If you set the spray pattern as big as it will go, and use a the largest bottle that will fit it, you can get into a lot of inaccessable places like the bottom of the bed rails. The only downside, is that most of them have very small paint bottle on them.
I had my entire truck stripped when doing the restore. The guy doing my blast work used sand to do the bed and said that it was a definate pain, as the old army paint was still tough as nails. Of course he is used to blasting on hot rods and classic cars wich usually don't have all the layers of paint build up like army trucks do. Heavy metal items like the bed, tailgate, frame, cab, and drivetrain got sand blasted. Lighter items like the hood, doors, fenders, and windshield frame were media blased with crushed walnut shells. I had every piece of metal on my 715 stripped to bare metal for just under $2000 here locally.
Dave
1967 Kaiser Jeep M715 weapons carrier:http://www.davidallenracing.com/M715.htm
1967 Kaiser Jeep M35a2 2.5 ton cargo truck: http://www.davidallenracing.com/M35A2.htm
1968 M51 Inflatable Chemical Shelter System http://www.davidallenracing.com/M51.htm
Delta Team Decals: http://www.i2k.com/~schwarzd/
Oh, and also what others have said, be prepaired to paint right away to keep the chance of oxidation away. I worked out with the blaster the order I wanted pieces stripped so that I could paint and assemble in the order I needed to fit my work schedule on the truck. I would pick up a piece and get it back to the shop and immediatly get to painting on it.
Dave
1967 Kaiser Jeep M715 weapons carrier:http://www.davidallenracing.com/M715.htm
1967 Kaiser Jeep M35a2 2.5 ton cargo truck: http://www.davidallenracing.com/M35A2.htm
1968 M51 Inflatable Chemical Shelter System http://www.davidallenracing.com/M51.htm
Delta Team Decals: http://www.i2k.com/~schwarzd/
I am in the process of doing my M35 now. I bought 10 bags of sand knowing I would need more but thought they would be enough to get the rear frame done. Ran short about 4-5 bags. The CARC paint is thick and takes some time to get it off.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/index.p...126&highlight=
When I did my M725 I had it blasted. It did ok. I can see some of the back panels warped but they showed some warping before we blasted it so I am not sure if it was from blasting or not. We used CARC and rushed the primer before it was dry. The CARC separated and cracked anywhere the primer was thick.