How much is sandblasting?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Jay-

Jay-

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
Threads
108
Messages
509
Location
Norcal, not on fire but it was darn close.
How much is sandblasting?

Is it worth it? My mechanic burnt up my pant and wants to sand it by hand.
I'm thinking of removing the body and removing all glass and haling it down to get blasted on my own ticket unless you think a mechanic could hand sand? Hay its free for me.

I'm trusting the guys who have been here before, I have just a tiny bit of rust on the rear where the top fits to the body.

I have no idea what media blasting can cost.

thanks.
 
Don't know about media blasting ???, The sand blasting company I use for small parts just raised their price from $175 per hour to $195 per hour , now probably too expensive for me to use them ???
 
If you know what you're doing it's actually cheaper to rent a 185 compressor and sandpot (w/hood and breathing air filter) and buy the sand. When I've had the time I've done my own sandblasting, but then I've been paid to practice :) (construction work). You just need to be careful and use the proper techniques.

Otherwise, I was paying $600 - $800 to sandblast an entire FJ40. A lot depends on condition. Things like multiple paint layers, Rhino lining and undercoating drive the price up. It's cheaper if everything is stripped and in easy to handle pieces.
 
Reddingcruiser is right on the money. Had mine done this fall and it came to approx. 750.00. That was with glass beads. I've heard of problems when done with soda. Something about reacting with the primer unless totally cleaned up. I'm curious on the burning the paint. Sounds like that should be a good story.
 
The problem with soda blasting and media such as walnut shells is the media gets trapped in the seams, or layers of laminated metal, and retains moisture, which causes rust.
 
elkun1 said:
I'm curious on the burning the paint. Sounds like that should be a good story.
Click to expand...

Its not that great of a story, I ran into a bitch black burning building and put the fire out then put the 40 in neutral and pushed it out. flames were rolling up the walls and ceiling. it sucked, it totally sucked. My 40 was all done but smog and seat covers. new tires, new everything. Now Iv been smacked back to the stone age and its going back on non op until I can get a roof!

So I walked into a burning building today...
 
I have a local shop that will blast the entire body for my fj40 for $450.00 That is everything brought to them in pieces. Frame, doors, top side panels, hood, tub, fenders, ect.... I would blast it. You just need to find someone reasonably priced. I have a rebuild thread on here of the one I had blasted. You can see the before and after photos.
 
Jay- said:
hi where is the thread?
Click to expand...

Here is the link to my restoration.
Burnt FJ40 Restoration Project. Painted Photos are Posted

The only issue I have blasting it yourself is that is it extremely messy. If you blast inside it will be all over everything. You need to make sure you wear a good respirator. The dust is bad for you. Blasting inside allows you to be able to sweep up your media and filter so you can reuse it. If you blast outside things are less messy, however you will loose a lot of media and in order to blast a entire vehicle you will need a lot. Pay someone and you will be much happier. I do blast my own small parts in a cabinet. Large parts I take to someone else.
 
I had my entire 40 sandblasted. I took it all apart and had it waiting for him at my house. I dont recall the exact price, but it was around 1200. I did everything except the frame. Frame was $550 blasting and powdercoating. We soda blasted a few things like top because he said the sand would ruin it. As I understand the soda must be neutrlized with vinegar or else it will bubble the paint. I saw that first hand at a body shop, not pretty and lots of finger pointing.

The blasting was really the only choice I had in my situation, as the rig had several bad paint jobs, and a lot of unkown body work hiding below. As gabe said, it is a very messy job. Sand and dust get everywhere. You really need the proper equipment to do it yourself.

Taking the tub off isnt really that hard once you get into it. If you need any pics or help please let me know. Sorry for your bad luck, but it will turn out positive in the end.
 
I've only had one vehicle blasted for paint, in my opinion it's worth it.

Your gonna pay a body man to sand it or your gonna pay the man to blast it.
I stripped my first 40 down with the tub still on the frame. Disassembled the hardtop and front clip, the paint shop will do this anyways to paint if a quality job is done anyway.

Hindsight I wasn't that far from removing tub. I wish I had.

18 years later I might have it done again to save the bottom side of it....
 
Also, sorry to hear about your 40 and having to start over. Bummer dude.

Sound like you will keep on taking care of it when most would cut their losses.
 
where are you? location determines cost. I paid 90/hr to have my blasted, but the old guy who owned the shop gave cash discounts so it was less than $500 to have my tub and fenders blasted. A word of warning, there is no "partial" sandblast - it was amazing to me how creative the PO(s) had gotten at hiding the dents. Fortunately, the surprises for me weren't too bad - but I know of plenty of full vehicles who went to blasting where only 1/2 came back.... Rust is a MF'er and will ruin your day. Honestly, if it's just a bit of ruined paint - let sleeping dogs lie and save yourself the grief of a 2 or more year restoration job.
 
In my humble opinion. If you're going to do it do it properly. For me when it comes to having to recoat old and suspect steel especially when there may be suspect work hidden away, sand blasting is the way to go. You can see exactly what is there and proceed to repair from a solid foundation. Proper adhesion for the paints, filler etc and nice clean steel for any welding.

In my experience there are blasters and then there are blasters. The bad guy is going to give you undulating panels that you will never be able to fix. Be careful, try to get a look at other panels he has done.

I have been reading up on the Dustless Blasting equipment - glass/water. On the face of it, it seems to me to be the answer for doing vehicles. I haven't physically seen it being done, but intend to have a close look at it soon with the intention of bringing one back as a business opportunity specifically for automotive and marine use. Does anybody have any experience of the Dustless system?
 
I've looked into the dustless system myself as well as a business line - if I were younger it would be a done deal . Only issue I see is that some folks aren't going to like any moisture on bare metal no matter what the reasoning - it can cause some problems and may hold wet media inside of hidden overlap joints and such . A good blaster will also know how to properly blow out panels and joints to prevent media buildup and paint/corrosion issues as well - choose carefully or they can leave you with a big mess and a lot of work later . If it were an honest nut and bolt teardown/ restore I'd look into chemical dipping and coating - that takes care of the panel joint issues but of course costs even more . I'd love to go that route , as well as just galvanize the whole tub and frame ...lol .

Sarge
 
I was quoted a rate of $75 per hour to blast my 40, I am taking everything to the shop, fenders, doors, tub, hood,......But he did let me know that stuff like rhino liner and massive amounts of bondo eat up a lot of time at an hourly rate.
 
Have your mechanic sand it for free. It's not tough to hand sand, it just takes a long time. Cruisers have large flat panels. Spend the 1K on good quality paint..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom