Restoration -Blasting or... (1 Viewer)

[Deneway]

Now that the snow is finally melting around here and the temps are almost ok to paint in, its time to start the resto of my M416.

My initial though was to take it apart, have it blasted, then paint it. But it really needs to be a rolling restoration so I can use it at weekends.

So that has me thinking about using my grinder with wire brush, which means doing it section by section. Thats fine with me.

But what are people's experience about going the wire brush route? Any particular problems to watch for?

Thx

 

[Phulcrum]

I recommend sand blasting if you can, a sandblaster pot from harbor freight is under 50.00 bucks. if you have to go to the wire brush route, then i say go with some POR15. NO affiliation. i just love the product, its (apparently) the only real rust treatment . i did my entire suspension and frame on my FJc and it's held up well through ocean air and snow runs. i plan to treat my entire M416 with it. it's only weakness is UV rays, so you have to paint over it with something if it will be in Direct sunlight.

hope i was helpfull.

 

[KY854RUN]

Hi Deneway,

I've read quite a few restoration threads were the person started by using a wire brush on a grinder. In every thread, they changed their mind and had it blasted after only a little work with the grinder. Check out my trailer build, the link is in my signature below. It took me 2 weeks to do my rebuild. But, I had the time and I was very motivated to get it finished.

Good luck.

 

[LakeNorman_FJ40]

If you have nothing but tons of free time on your hands, go the wire wheel route, but wear eye protection. I've done this now on a couple of restorations and each time about 1/2 through, I wish I would have just media blasted it and won't make the same mistake a 3rd time. Sandblast if you have rust...soda blast if you just want to remove the paint.

Oh, and if I had a choice I'd spray the paint vs. hand brush. POR-15 is awesome if you must hand brush, but I'd limit it to chassis, axles, etc.

 

[Exiled]

My M416 had multiple layers of heavy-duty mil-spec paint on it, to the point where I had to wire wheel each nut and bolt just so I could get the socket over them. If you want to do this right, I would strongly suggest full dissassembly and then blasting each part. It's going to be a lot more effective, and the cost of *many* wire wheels to do the whole thing will offset the cost of blasting.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Blast it.

 

[cbmontgo]

Mine just had minor surface rust in a few spots, so I wire wheeled it and then prepped and painted it. Turned out looking brand new and it's been 2 or 3 years now and still looks that way.

 

[65-fj45]

Blast it, when i did mine 7 years ago I started out trying to sand,scrape and wire wheel it. I finaly gave up and had it blasted, It was the best money I spent on the trailer.

 

[fireflyr]

I bought the HF $100 sand blaster and tried to strip my M100 in my yard. I got tired of waiting for my compressor to catch up, I replaced 1/2 the hardware that wore out, got tired of digging sand out of my eyes, nose and ears.......... It was a terrible experience. I finally bought some aircraft paint stripper to take off the 5 layers of paint and used POR15 on the rust. If you have an industrial soda/sand blaster in your area I'd suggest taking it there, it will be money well spent.

 

[Phulcrum]

also, you can rent sandblasters and large air compressors for about 200.00 a day, if you want to do it yourself. I am having a "mod day " here soon to do a couple m416's and some wheel blackouts. everyone pitches in and gets a lot done.

 

[smileyfish]

i can honestly say that blasting is quicker, i spent 3+ hrs wire wheeling a tailgate down to bare steel today. so i guess you figure out what your time is worth and go from there.