Anybody tried the sandblasters at Harbor Freight??

[sixpack_sid]

I am working on a '68 Charger. Did anyone ever buy the pressurized 20 lb sandblaster from Harbor Freight? Does it work well to get the car down to bare metal or is it junk? I have fenders and doors I want to take down to bare metal and money is tight, so I'd like to do it as cheap as possible. Can anyone recommend a good way to do this?
Thanks!
Sid

[daytonalo]

I have one of those , the tip that comes with it will wear out in a flash . I replaced it with a professional tip . I have a 200 lb pressure pot for big jobs

[firefighter3516]

Dint know about the pressurized sandblaster but I have a 90 LB. siphon sandblaster and it works pretty good not really quick but I have time and it was cheap.

[Silver R/T]

they do work. I have 25 lb pressured pot one and it works. Id be careful not to warp sheetmetal though. Use paint stripper instead on large surfaces

[motorhead]

I 've got one it's good for sand, but I prefer walnut shells or another of many medias that's not too abrasive. Walnuts don't work well, they bind in the L joint at the bottom feed. Here's my 68 after blasting to bare metal and POR 15 applied.

[Moparsky67]

Motorhead, what media did you end up using to blast your Charger ?

[motorhead]

I used the walnuts in the corners and hit open areas with the lightest grit sand I could find. The rest was sand paper by hand.

[700jfm]

I have the 40lb. from them works good on small jobs. Would not try to use it on the whole car.

[daytonalo]

I have sandblasted over 10 cars , use triple 000 sand , hood and decklid will warp from heat of blasting , I use low pressure and hold tip at an angle.

[700jfm]

What size blaster did you use? Never mind I see 200lb.

[daytonalo]

I have a few blasters . They all have a purpose . I have a tow behind Diesel  comp as well as 7.5 , 80 gal 175 psi Comp from harbor Freight

[1969chargerrtse]

I 've got one it's good for sand, but I prefer walnut shells or another of many medias that's not too abrasive. Walnuts don't work well, they bind in the L joint at the bottom feed. Here's my 68 after blasting to bare metal and POR 15 applied.

Every once and a while I see a pictutre that makes me go , that underside picture would be one of them.  That is so cool, great job.

[Mikko]

Here´s my car after wash. Just plain water, 3000bar but it´s very gentle way to get car at bare metal.

[Troy]

Here´s my car after wash. Just plain water, 3000bar but it´s very gentle way to get car at bare metal.

That looks great - and much easier than hand sanding I'm sure. 3,000 bar?

Troy

[Tilar]

I 've got one it's good for sand, but I prefer walnut shells or another of many medias that's not too abrasive. Walnuts don't work well, they bind in the L joint at the bottom feed. Here's my 68 after blasting to bare metal and POR 15 applied.

Every once and a while I see a pictutre that makes me go , that underside picture would be one of them.  That is so cool, great job.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw it. I'm hoping that my 68 will look that good one day.

I have two sandblasters from China Freight (Harbor Freight) one is the big cabinet that they sell for blasting small parts up to around the size of a wheel, and a small one that holds like a teaspoon of sand. The cabinet one works good, the small one runs out of sand so fast that it's not worth the trouble.

[CHARGERMAN2007_69]

They work very good

[speedfreak68]

Hey Mikko what do you mean by 3000 bar?

[daytonalo]

99.9 % of Cars that I restore are rust buckets , so I would never promote more rusting with water , sandblast everthing and the clean metal now has an etch for primer, and the rusted metal is now ready for patch work .

[sixpack_sid]

Thanks a lot for the advice! I bought it, but now I'm not sure what abrasive to use in it. What works the best for going to bare metal? Walnut shells, sand, aluminum oxide are  the options I've seen. Does anyone have a preference? I also need to go thru the rubberized undercoating. What works for that?
Thanks for all the help! I can't wait to get started!

[71butterbee]

Thanks a lot for the advice! I bought it, but now I'm not sure what abrasive to use in it. What works the best for going to bare metal? Walnut shells, sand, aluminum oxide are  the options I've seen. Does anyone have a preference? I also need to go thru the rubberized undercoating. What works for that?
Thanks for all the help! I can't wait to get started!

I would remove the undercoating and seam sealer by heating it with a propane torch and a scraper before blasting. Just heat the undercoating a bit with the torch and it will come right off with a scraper. It won't take that much time and will make the job move faster and what ever is left behind the blaster will take care of no problem. The cabinet abrasives are not cheap so I used regular sand on the last car I blasted myself. Sand box sand was like $6 per 50lb bag. It does create allot of dust compared to other abrasives. I just used a couple cheap house box fans to exhaust the dust. I used a couple hundred pounds to finish the job and I trapped off the area so I could recapture the sand. As far as the upper bodys goes I wouldn't blast the large surfaces like hoods, quarters, roof and trunk lid. I would hit those with sand paper. I did blast the interior, under structure of the hood and trunk lid, trunk area and engine bay. I did this on a Challenger R/T I restored some years back and it turned out super!

[sixpack_sid]

Sand box sand was like $6 per 50lb bag. It does create allot of dust compared to other abrasives. I just used a couple cheap house box fans to exhaust the dust. I used a couple hundred pounds to finish the job and I trapped off the area so I could recapture the sand. As far as the upper bodys goes I wouldn't blast the large surfaces like hoods, quarters, roof and trunk lid. I would hit those with sand paper. I did blast the interior, under structure of the hood and trunk lid, trunk area and engine bay. I did this on a Challenger R/T I restored some years back and it turned out super!

You just used regular play sand? Does it work as well as the abrasive sand? Anybody else tried this? Any input would be helpful.   

[daytonalo]

I buy 100 lbs of triple 000 or 00 for 4.50 a bag ! Cheap enough ??

[resq302]

Daytonalo,

Where do you get the 000 or 00 sand?  I am in NJ aslo and just got a blasting cabinet and need some blasting agent.

[daytonalo]

Any concrete place , I went to Woodbury Concrete in south Jersey . The sand is Processed by Ricci bros out of Vineland

[Steve P.]

I spent a good part of today blasting some pulleys, brackets and backing plates. I have a Eastwood Blast cabinet. I don't like it much as I think the design leaves a bunch at the table.  The large cabinet at Harbor Freight looks like a better design to me. Mine doesn't funnel the sand to the pick up tube worth a damn. At any rate, I use all purpose sand from Home Depot. It's plenty sharp and plenty cheap.

One major thing that helps is to add a small el' cheapo vacuum cleaner to the cabinet. It should have a place to hook up a 1 1/2" vac. hose. This will keep the fine dust down and make it possible to see inside the cabinet while blasting.  Some ear plugs are a good thing too..