Sandblasting Truckbed?

[fng]

Took mine down to a monument company where they make headstones. Sandblasted the whole thing, top, bottom and all sides. It sure took off the crud too. It is thick enough to tollerate it without any ill effects except it's a very convoluted and angular surface to re-shoot during painting. I'm still finding places the painter missed, like the pockets and under the rails.
The rest of the truck was also blasted, all except for the hood and inner door panels. We both thought they were too thin to try it on.

[teking]

Took mine down to a monument company where they make headstones. Sandblasted the whole thing, top, bottom and all sides. It sure took off the crud too. It is thick enough to tollerate it without any ill effects except it's a very convoluted and angular surface to re-shoot during painting. I'm still finding places the painter missed, like the pockets and under the rails.
The rest of the truck was also blasted, all except for the hood and inner door panels. We both thought they were too thin to try it on.

Bingo .... I sandblasted mine and had similar issues with missed spots without paint. Under the rails is the biggest issue I had too. That and in the antenna/bed cover well.

[boghog]

You guys might know this, but some might not. Make sure you coat the underside of the rail, that we all know, but the pockets will rust out quick if not painted. I had to rebuild all 6 pockets on a bed I'm using. After removing the pockets in layers, I found that the rust appears to form from condensate that gets drawn in between the layers of the steel that forms the pocket. On mine after the truck was painted I taped off the outside of the pocket and on the open bottom ones I placed some cardboard, then coated the living %^& out of the with primer and paint. So much so that after I was done spraying I could go in side with a small acid brush and work the primer and the paint back up to the top and to the underside, it helped to be able to bend the brush into a 90 degree handle.
Good luck, ain't this fun?


I find it funny that ain't ain't in the dictionary, but it requires punctuation.
Go figure.

[Fastfrankie]

I just brought my bed to a powdercoating company. They bake the bed at a temperature that melts the paint/makes it flake off and then they sandblasted the entire thing and it looks great. $350 to do the entire bed, sides, underneath etc.

[Tomahawk715]

I keep hearing about places that have ovens big enough for frames and boxes-never seen one however. I think they have PC'd frames on Overhaulin'. In all the little areas that never see the light of day (such as between the cab front and the fenders) I've been using the Eastwood rust conversion system. I bought the full frame kit and a couple extra sealer cans. I've been pretty lucky-this truck has less rust than I've ever worked with before. I wire wheeled the front axle and it looks brand new after paint. DNR must have had it squireled away somewhere.

[BCOWANWHEELS]

a couple tips.....
never touch the bed with bare hands after blasting.
blow off parts with air hose.
vacume the area to pickup sand alot......
always shoot the bed with a heavy coat of cheap laquer thinner ( while stood up ) before painting as there is dust left on it after the blast even with a trip home in the
wind.
go buy one of those small paint roller from lowes to do the parts you cant spray like under the bed top rails.
do all body repairs before blasting...
stand bed on gate end to paint bottom and top then lay it down to finish. alot easyer to get to it.
BE READY TO PAINT WHEN YOU GET IT BACK....4 SURE
bob

[randyscycle]

I agree with Bob. Be clean, and be ready to paint! I always find that if I do the parts that are hardest to reach first, it makes the rest seem like a breeze. All the flat panels go pretty quickly anyway.

Airbrushes can also be a helpful tool as well. If you set the spray pattern as big as it will go, and use a the largest bottle that will fit it, you can get into a lot of inaccessable places like the bottom of the bed rails. The only downside, is that most of them have very small paint bottle on them.