Hi people, Currently cleaning away all of the golden stuff on the bottom of the van with wire cut brushes and grinding disc's but theres quite a few places in and around the chasis where they won''t get too. What has everyone else used? are the diy sandblasters anygood? Thanks Scott
I feel for you brother ;D I must have spent nearly a year under my getting rid of rust.....theres still a couple of places left to do though Where I can, I use the wire brush on a grinder - I use the flat sort rather than the cup'd ones as you can use them "on the end" and so get the grinder in to corners slightly better for tighter areas I use drill wire brush attachments of varying sizes - little disc ones and cone shaped ones for getting into the corners for areas the drill wont reach into I weld the drill attachments to a bit of stud bar to give extra reach. I did use a little shot blaster with mixed results, idally you need a large compressor with high air low to get the best results. I made an extension out of some tubing to do inside the rear vents lastly if all else fails I resort to hand wire brushing which different size brushes. there are a few products you can use but most of these contain some sort of acid which can be a bit agressive on delicate metal ....and you've got to rinse off with water after .....which I dont like the idea of after getting rid of the rust in the first place and obviously once the surface has been cleaned to the best of your ability you need to get some good protection on it ....personally I like epoxy mastic 121 but there are loads of great products. I'd steer clear of sticky under seal, hammerite or just using waxoyl on its own good luck mate
Hi Thanks Diddymen, Some very good advice, Is the blaster in the picture any good, I've just been looking at them in machine mart, the compressor i've got is ample big enough, just don't want to blow £50.00 on something that isn't gonna do the job. I'm finding the flat wheel brushes the best too, alot better then the cup although they don't cover as big surface area, they are alot easier to control and get the corners alot better. Once cleaned I was planning on using zinc 182 primer as base then not sure what after, most tend to use tetroseal. but I think it needs further investigation Thanks Scott.
Check out the reviews on vactan or any of the other products with 'tan' at the end they seem to be quite well rated as a kind of undercoat rust prevention remedy type thing.
just be careful using those flat wire wheels for the grinder, if you "clip" the edge of a panel in the wrong way they can really kick back .....if your under the bus in a tight spce it usually goes for the head ;D The shot blaster is ok, I borrowed it from my neighbour. I think another thing to consider with it it the type of medi you are using in it. I got some shot blast from work and it was quite course and heavy so I think one of the problems was it getting pulled from the container or not in some cases. I found it best to only top up the container to half full with the stuff......but being only a small ish container it runs out very quickly and your constantly having to top it up. I found it worked well in the rear vents removing paint, but underneath it only took off the lighter surface rust and left the heavy scale - this might have been due to the compressor or media being used as my neighbour said he found it pretty good using baking soda as a media on small items. I did think of buying a pressure pot blaster at one point, I think they would be much better than a suction type like that one^^ ....but I never did. I think the one I was looking at was from machine mart and had quite a big reservoir - about £100 from memory. Its definatly worth doing a bit of research on underside protection. I've probably spent £200 or more on the paint I use just on the under side!! as it gets the most abuse then its worth spending just as much time and effort on the under side paint as it is on the top colour on the rest of the bus IMHO
Hi ! check out on u tube for the home made soda blaster ! . I'm useless on computers so unable to do a link for you but its deffo worth looking at . I have got all the bits together to make one up ready for when i remove my twin carbs for resto 8) . Cost next to nothing and well worth a try for about £ 7.00 . Good luck and hope this info is of use . Cheers mate 8)
if your compessor is man enough a belt file will get in tight areas but they are expensive and so are the belts any blasting will need all traces of the media removing before any kind of paint is applied sometimes elbow grease is the only way
I use the Black and Decker power file mainly for grinding down welds but as Aussie bay says a power file will get into some tight spaces, and the electric one is only about £30
i used the black 3M rust and paint stripper discs. they dig out the rust better than wire brushes. not cheap, but they work. small areas i used a dremel with wire brush/sanding blocks. if/when i do it again i'd invest in dome of the great products from Frost. am sure they have something that just eats the rust?
