Abrasive Blast and Paint Undercarriage? 7 year update

[PZLCruiser]

I live in the Northeast and work at a place that does abrasive blasting and painting so ive been talking to the guys about having my rear axle cleaned and painted. I plan on simply rolling my truck in, jacking it up, and having them do what they call "sweep blasting" which is going to knock off loose debris and clean me up. I don't want a white metal finish which will probably do more harm than good but rather to get a cleaned up axle for epoxy coating. Rust is slowly eating my LC away so something has to happen.

Anyways... looking under the truck I notice the break lines, ABS, the E-break lines which should be protected but is there anything else that I should be worried about? Has anyone had this done before?

Wondering if its a good idea or not... Pros? Cons?

 

[nukegoat]

I don't know, but it's spelled "brake"

 

[Omicron]

I am in the same boat as you. Have a northern truck (now living in TX) and have some quotes to do something similar, but to the whole frame/underside. I too am apprehensive about the value of doing this plus the work involved in protecting stuff. How would you/they protect this stuff in the first place...?

 

[PZLCruiser]

yah...very insightful Nuke thanks,

They say to just wrap parts with poly plastic sheets or rags and it should be fine.

 

[Howard705]

Go for it have done it on 40s.

 

[Kernal]

Would it depend on the blasting media being used; glass beads, crushed walnut, soda, aluminum oxide, ---??

 

[DonVito]

Another option for sensitive parts is to wrap everything in masking tape and then a layer of duct tape over top. Duct tape will withstand the blasting but removing it afterwards is a horrendous mess to clean up, thus you put masking tape down first, which will peel right off afterwards. I powdercoated as a side business which is how I found this out.

 

[PZLCruiser]

They have silica sand which I hope wont have too much bite but masking tape is a good option, ill look into that. Im hoping to get it done this weekend so ill post about how it went.

 

[Golgo13]

FWIW there was a guy from the KSA(boozewz) who did a pretty nice restoration on his truck. 20 years of driving in the desert sands had basically blasted his axle to white metal.
I would imagine if you keep the blast away from the seals you should be OK. Blast it, wash it, paint it, doesn't seem like a bad idea.

If all you want to do is knock off the loose junk, maybe walnut shells would be better?

 

[DonVito]

Silica sand leaves a nice finish however it will tear through stuff in a heart beat especially if they have a high cfm compressor which I am guessing they do, just make sure you cover the masking with duct tape. Also that sand will get everywhere in everything, its a nightmare but it works great.

 

[Omicron]

PZLCruiser - Did you get this done this weekend? Hope all went well? Any updates plz.

 

[PZLCruiser]

Yes and yes went well. I asked for just the rear axle and got the entire underside done. The guy said that it would have looked funny with just the back hf looking newly painted and the front not so he just went for it. Im not complaining he spent like hf an hr blasting the underside and then dusted everything off with compressed air. Next he sprayed some Carboline epoxy primer all over. We let it cure over night and top coated the next afternoon. I let it cure for the rest of the day and drove home last night. I was super happy with the result up until I realized my entire exhaust was painted too but not much I could do other than to just drive and hope it all burns off. Judging by the smoke trail down the highway looked like it was, still smokes a bit when I drove today but its subsiding and flaking off.

Over all I think I got just what I was looking for which is many more years of rust protection! Enough rambling check out the pics!

 

[PZLCruiser]

 

[scrowley]

Looks GREAT!!!! I have to look into that. I do a scrape and paint every year but this would be a amazing alt. to start of with it as good as it can be. How much did this cost? Also just noticed your in middletown. I am 40 min from there. Anyway that shop will do it on another rig??

 

[PZLCruiser]

The guy did it as a favor for me but would be about $500 cash. Depending on what you wanted of course could go up or down.

 

[UnderDawg]

I just spit some Frosted Flakes on my Laptop....

I don't know, but it's spelled "brake"

 

[Toyote]

I knew I shouldnt have looked at this thread. Amazing.

 

[NLXTACY]

I knew I shouldnt have looked at this thread. Amazing.

Sheesh I didn't venture in here either because all I thought was what was the use? I don't even know what rust is and I needed to travel 1500 miles to catch some glimpses of it. But wow!

 

[PZLCruiser]

Looks GREAT!!!! I have to look into that. I do a scrape and paint every year but this would be a amazing alt. to start of with it as good as it can be. How much did this cost? Also just noticed your in middletown. I am 40 min from there. Anyway that shop will do it on another rig??

Scrowley the shop is in Old Saybrook but yah a couple guys here do stuff like this on the side almost every weekend. Im sure something could get set up. PM me if you want.

 

[Omicron]

Looking good. Some more details on the dusting..Did he tape up the rubber hoses and the brake lines to protect them or was he just careful in the blasting not to hit those?