Advice on purchasing a sand blaster

[Crawdad]

My dad gave me his old 76 Bronco. As I pealed back some of the carpet that was glued down and I started to notice lots of rust, I mean lots!!! Especially under the dash on driver's side (possible air duct leak) and in the rear. One of the many things I asked for Xmas was a sand blaster. My dad would be the one buying it and he would get the cheapest one known to mankind! I do have a 30 gallon air compressor running on a 220 line. Does anyone have any experience/ advice on which sand blaster to get from Harbour Freight, TSC or Northern Tool? Thx!!

[SC74]

You can get fairly cheap guns and use a 5 gallon bucket of sand. You may find that your 30 gallon compressor will struggle keeping up if you have wide open places to shoot.

[broncosbybart]

You would be best served by one of the pressurized blasters. got mine at northern. with that said, your compressor will struggle with it. your best option would probably be to buy a 4.5" grinder and several wire wheel cups. they do a great job and don't make near the mess. the wires will eventually start falling off though and stick into your clothing... otherwise it is a good way to go. have fun with the new to you Bronco.

[JayT]

Get and air dryer for your compressor too... with the comp running so much to keep up, the air will get wet fast! and that doesn't mix well with sand, for blasting.

[blazinchuck]

ive had a Sears gravity feed blaster(worked barely) and then had a HF pressurized one...that worked the best. it has been gone for a while now...but it worked really good for the money. as for the compressor, it should do fine...just put a nice water separator inline and check it often. if i remember, the HF blaster came with one mounted to the back side of it...so that would mean-your ready to go

[Crawdad]

I dont expect to sandblast my whole rig, but do expect to get seams and other hard to reach spots. I already have two water seperators on my compressor, tools last longer and work better when they are dry. I have many grinders and wire wheels to get the big areas. I guess I will be checking these out in the next few weeks:

Harbour Freight: 90 Lb. Pressurized Abrasive Blaster with Easy Fill Top Load Lid
Northern tool: Allsource 100-lb. Pressure Blaster, Model# 41600

Thx for the advice!

[Timstrk]

I have the HF 40lb one. Small tank. Will hold more than a bag of play sand from Lowe's. However. You can't just use the playsand from Lowe's. It has to be screened to take out the larger grains. These will clog the nozzle and you have to stop and clean it out and start all over for it to do it again. I use metal screen door screen. If it fits through that it will go through the nozzle. I run it with a 6.5 horse 60 gallon upright compressor. It will hold about 75psi and run the whole time the blaster is working. A 30 gallon compressor would only make you mad. They do a great job and leave a rough surface. You will need protective clothing as well. I wear a full face respirator with HEPA cartridge filters, heavy jacket with hood (sand in the ears) and leather gloves. Silicosis of the lung is serious. It's not a toy. Things to think about. They do a great job though. Kind of a mess to clean up all the spent sand. Inside the truck you could vacuum. It's going to go everywhere, though.

Tim

[Casey835]

Pressure pot definately way to go, as stated above full respirator unless u dont care about urself or loved ones and even so its still against the law to use sand, go ahead do urself a favor and buy the hood like at northern with the wire screen in front of the glass screen, and just get one with a good gun. I can definately give more advice on this as I have done a lot of it and have learned a lot from my on blasting

[Crawdad]

Here is a pick of my floors. Such a sad thing..... But I think I can get creative here. I don't have an extra gas tank so there is some room, cross members might be an issue. I think some much needed storage is in order.

[broncosbybart]

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.