Advice on purchasing a sand blaster

[SC74]

Looks like someone has already done some patch work once. I'd cut it all out and put new metal in there. No sandblaster needed. (Me speaking here)- I'd rebuild the front floors with new repro panels that are ribbed like the originals. I'd leave all the cross members intact (if they don't have rust issues) and keep the floor the way it was. You can do storage under the pass. side seat very easily. The rear floor section looks good from the pic provided.

I agree... you will spend more time trying to repair those and you'll still have a repair. New floor panels are not too bad to do and the end product will be much better.

[Crawdad]

Thx guys! I agree with new panels, they are fairly inexpensive. The sandblaster is for the areas grinder/ wirewheel can't get to. I even found foam when I pulled out the emergency cable at the floor brake. YIKES! I'm not too concerned about the rust right now, I just want to drive it. I'll wait till I get back from across the pond in 2012. For now it will be driven and parked under the carport I built. Of course I will need to wait on the paint till I fix the floors. I know there are lots of vendors out there. Who has the best fitting panels? LMC, Carpenters, BC, JBG, Toms, etc...?

[broncosbybart]

Honestly? Put all the names on a dart board and see which one you hit first. IMHO, they all fit rather poorly... Good thing is that they usually make them too big, so you have room to work with them.

[Crawdad]

Yesterday I finally cranked up my sandblaster. I used black aluminum oxide glass which I thought did well. But man my 30 gallon 2hp air compressor stayed on the entire time. At 125 psi the sand flowed out well, at 100 psi I had to knock the canister to get sand down tube, and would not throw sand out at 25 psi. And it would go from 125 psi to 25 psi in one minute!!! Take 5 minutes to build pressure back up. I noticed that the rear floor pan has been replaced before (not by my dad). Whoever did it looked like they did it with a stick welder. The weld joints are in poor shape. There are some holes but not many. Sandblasting is a huge mess! OMG! I knew that going into it but man the wife was not happy when I put my clothes in the washer and beads went on everything, and on the next load! I think I am going to give the bronco over to a media blaster and pay them to blast the inside cab only. I used 20 lbs of blasting media and only got maybe 2 sqft done. At $30 for a 40lb jug of blasting media I dont think I'm saving any time or money.