This was meant to be a longer, more glorious post about the trials and tribulations of setting up the blasting process (and I’d planned a second post on Alaska’ Paul’s blasting). But, this evening my mother needed rescuing after her battery died, so I shall have to skip the day’s drama and Paul’s efforts in favor of a short summation: I ran through three different compressors (a portable pancake, a portable contractor, and finally the 26 gallon wheeled Husky) before getting one that would work. Of course, the Husky had to be repaired, which further delayed work on Rusty.
Once the compressor started pumping, I started blasting. After considering various options, I went with fine coal material made by Black Diamond designed for blasting.
I tackled the headlight buckets first. The photo below shows one side blasted and the other not.
I was able to prep a number of parts, but forgot to get a photo of them lined up on my work table. I’m bringing them back to Pasco with me today to paint them.
One reason I need to return home is so Ann can return to our bedroom …. she had a freaky experience at 2AM a few nights ago. Our dog Zollie woke her up, growing at something. He never growls at night. She said he was looking all over as he growled. Once she calmed him down, the Amazon Echo on her side table unexpectedly announced “that’s not a very nice thing to say”. Knowing she hadn’t said anything, she used her Amazon Echo app to determine what the Echo had heard. When she brought it up the echo claimed to have heard the word “die”. As you might imagine, that was enough for her. She went downstairs and slept on the couch. She hasn’t slept in the bedroom since.
One last thing I did yesterday was to spend a little time straightening the rear quarter panels. Plenty of work left, but using some clamps and flat metal I was able to make them look a little better. Here’s the passenger side.
Plenty of work left …
Its fun to see progress and nice to see how other folks approach problems. Oh, and my out-of-town project a couple of weeks included two days of effort to get my friend’s welder working. Three defective (Chinese) gas regulators in a row made me question question my competence. Good old USA built came through.
Dave,
Looks like you are using harbor freight moving dollies under the jeep, does that work well? I bought the real things, and I’m so glad I did. It makes moving the jeep around the garage so much easier.
Steve
Doug: Glad you figured that out. That kind of thing can drive a person nuts!
Steve: They are supposed to be rated to 1000lbs. Since the dollies were on sale at Christmas and since the DJ is so light, I figured those cheap dollies would work just fine. And they do for the DJ, but they would need some stronger cross pieces to handle a heavier weight.
Ann, That is Freaky! Don’t blame you for sleeping on the couch!
Yeah Im with Dennis , never mind the blasting that Echo business is crazy !!! Im not so sure I would want one of those in my house . Hang in there Ann !!!
Dave, crazy story about Ann. Against my better judgement I told my wife about it just before I go on the road for 3 weeks. She wasn’t pleased. Any historic significance to your house?
Dave, I’ m impressed by your sheet metal work. It’s one skill have always been reluctant to attempt.
Wondering how you decided on the coal blasting. Any concern on metal warpage? And has anyone tried the dustless bladting being promoted on a couple of car shows?