What a week, who said this would be easy! Actually no one did.
The moon and the planets were aligning up for us to blast and paint the frame this weekend. I was going to be out for the next couple of weeks so it was this week or much later, Dale was going to guide a kayaking trip but there was not enough rain to provide enough water (yeah), the temperature finally was going to be 65 degrees and no rain. All set to go.
During the week I went to FinishMasters to buy the paint. As I am a construction person, not an automotive person I thought primer would be $30 a gallon, for the good stuff. “You are not in Kansas anymore”. Car primer is $150 dollars a gallon even with the Dr. Culpepper discount and you need an activator to boot. Tony at the paint shop was very helpful and gave me much needed advice.
Friday I had to leave work early to get the commercial air compressor that we were going to use for the blasting. It is a huge orange diesel air compressor. Dale backed the compressor into the driveway and we were set for the morning.
Also, picked up a commercial grade blaster since my Barbie home blaster didn’t really have the ability to handle the large grit size needed to get the job done.
We were originally going to use sand but learned that we would die if we used it. Silicosis is real and deadly, so we used coal slag from Black Diamond. I had two bags of blast media which I thought would do the deed and have some left over. Dale suggested that we might need a little more media. We ended up using about 20 bags and recycled that about 3 times.
As you can see everything looks neat and tidy – before the chaos starts
Blasting is like magic when it is working! It is like you have a light saber and the rust just disappears. There is nothing like the bare clean steel.
I am sure we made all the rookie mistakes and with a rental blaster our light saber was more like a flashlight on low batteries. We used the big nozzle, then the small nozzle, then the big nozzle. We put in one bag of media, then one and a half, then three bags. We shook the blaster, we rubbed it, we cursed it, we gave it chocolate, but we could not really figure it out
You have not lived until you have seen 80 pounds of media pour out the hose like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.
At one point we forgot to close the garage door and well, everyone should experience Mount St. Helens in your garage.
You cannot imagine how tired and dirty you can get fighting a 50 pound hose spewing grit at 90 PSI and unlimited flow.
Eventually we did make progress and got the frame prepared for priming. A quick clean up and a spray of water to hold down the dust and we were ready to go.
It is a tough transition to go from single minded blaster to a German paint technician. This is why we split the duties. I am the blaster, Dale is the scientist.
The other issue was we started the painting process at 4:30 pm, only an hour of light left. But, Alabama has high humidity and the rust was close behind us. We had to get the primer on the fresh metal.
Here is another construction vs. automotive conundrum. Why don’t automotive paint cans have handles? Also when you pour the paint into the measuring container, can you use a brush to wipe off the can and clean out the paint in the rim? But you don’t use brushes on the cars?
Good advice from Tony, measure the paint and activater, don’t guess.
Painting went very well; the primer went on easily and cleanly. The only problem we had was that the paint cup fell off a few times. We painted the top, let it dry, then flipped over the frame and painted the bottom. The last coat was done by the light of a flashlight.
Turns out it worked. We blasted and primed the front axle, runningboard bracket, and rear shackle hanger the next day. Then we ran out of energy, toto completo.
We thought we had to put the top coat over the primer within a day, due to the primer hardening up, but Tony said that didn’t happen with the epoxy primer we used, so we can put the top coat on later. Thank goodness. Done for now. My suspension parts should be delivered soon, so next is rebuilding the suspension.
When I was researching the blasting process, I came across a blog where the person said they blasted their frame and it worked out well, but that they would not do it again. Put my vote in this category.
War Eagle – Roll Tide
