Restoration diary / 21-05-2006
21-05-2006 >> Sand-blasted and painted the bottom of the car
 | p1030315.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - It's been a lot of extremely dirty work, but I managed to get the bottom of the car sand-blasted (something I would not even recommend to Bill Gates ;-). This shot is after cleaning up the garage, preparing to paint the bottom. The biggest problem is dust. That, and the limited vision (destroyed 4 pairs of glasses/masks). And the ceramic tip of the pistol wears out quickly, enlarging the gap, causing too much air to escape. My two compressors (delivering 300-350 l/min) just can't keep up, dropping back to 1,5 - 2 bar working pressure. Did I mention the dust? I hate dust. Oh yeah, you work in 15 - 20 minute cycles. Gathering and filtering the sand-blasting material, re-filling the tank, sand-blasting for 10 - 15 minutes. Repeat. On the plus side, it's really easy to remove rust and thin layers of paint. On the other side, it's next to impossible to remove tectyl (by the very nature of the product). |
 | p1030316.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - Nice clean engine compartment. The gray color is the bare, sand-blasted metal |
 | p1030318.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - Close-up of what happens to rusty spots |
 | p1030320.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - The under-body, cleaned from paint, rust and dirt |
 | p1030321.jpg (800 x 600) 21-05-2006 - Close-up from within the engine compartment. Again, this is what happens to rusty spots |
 | p1030323.jpg (800 x 600) 21-05-2006 - Front, right wheel (remember, the car is on the side) sand-blasted |
 | p1030329.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - To keep the air in the garage (a bit) clean(er), I installed this fan in the door. On the outside you see two big dust-bags collecting the dust, to keep the air on the outside clean too. |
 | p1030331.jpg (800 x 600) 21-05-2006 - In the beginning I had problems with the air-compressor. The (self installed, normally this is a metal pipe) hose between the compressor and the tank kept exploding because of the combination of pressure and heat. Here you see the three exploded hoses. The solution is on the next page... |
 | p1030335.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - A new, strong, thick, rubber hose from the compressor to the tank. The normal nylon hoses kept on exploding (see previous page). Thanks to Mark for guiding me to a place where we were able to buy this strong (and cheap too) hose. |
 | p1030339.jpg (800 x 600) 21-05-2006 - Painted the sand-blasted part of the car in an epoxy primer (this time, the gray is the primer) |
 | p1030341.jpg (800 x 600) 21-05-2006 - Also painted the underside. This must be the start of the next phase of the project. |
 | p1030342.jpg (600 x 800) 21-05-2006 - Painting tools. I will be using paint and filler from PPG. Here you see the primer, hardener and de-greaser. In front my el-cheapo paint-gun and fairly well functioning air mask. |