Thread: Water sand blasting galvanised and aluminium

Hi Richard,
I’ve had one of these for a few years. It works well, I use beach sand and recycle it, but you have to dry it and sieve it down to 1mm. The sand needs to be super dry and needs to remain above the spray head, otherwise water runs back down the pickup tube and blocks everything up.
Its pretty gentle compared to some of the dry sand blasting I’ve seen and I recon you could take the paint off without too much gal. Don’t know about the panels as the water might do more damage then the sand in terms of weight. I find that my finish is a lot finer the second time the sand goes around.

It goes thru the sand pretty quickly, the only time I measured, it took about 30l of sand to do a 14 inch rim inside and out.

Cheers Glen

Soda blasting I believe is not as aggressive on the alum.

You can 'sandblast' with stuff other than sand, either wet or dry. Soda blasting is suitable for both alloy and galv. Another alternative is nut shells, which is even gentler.

Beach sand should never be used for dry sandblasting as it carries a high risk of silicosis - which is something you really do not want to get, and neither do your neighbours. Sand itself is harmless - if you breath it in it gets trapped in your nose or throat. But when it is blasted at high speed against hard surfaces, or against another grain, bits of silica of all sizes are broken off.

Fine dust size silica makes its way into the lungs and becomes trapped causing permanent scar tissue, which destroys the function of the lungs. Silica is worse than any other common dust, with others either dissolving in the blood stream or at least not causing as much scarring. Coal dust is bad (black lung), but nowhere near as bad as silica. Perhaps it is not as bad as asbestos, because it will not cause cancer, but if you can't breath you are dead anyway.

Historically it has been a disease of miners and quarrymen, but in recent years the use of power tools to grind and cut concrete (made with silica sand) has made a new epidemic. Professional sandblasters know about this, and don't use beach sand.

Ihe guy I use uses glass.

Safe enough, but probably a bit harsh for either alloy or galv.

Have you thought about removing the paint with paint stripper? I stripped all the panels on my RRC a few years back with the "CAM" brand stripper you can get from a auto paint shop. It was quick and easy and quite cheap. A 4L tin was about 45 bucks and I ended up using a tin and a half to strip the whole car.

I started using the Septone stripper from Bunnings but that stuff is more expensive and junk compared to CAM. I found a nice thick coat of CAM and left for half an hour, scrap off the majority of it and water blast what's left works a treat.

But be careful and don't do what I did. I forgot my Jag was to close to where I was working on the other side of the fence and a chunk of stripper landed on the bonnet . It wasn't that big a deal as I'd only painted the Jag a couple of months earlier and had the necessary paint to repaint the bonnet, but I would have preferred not to make the extra work for myself.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Safe enough, but probably a bit harsh for either alloy or galv.

Depends on who is operating the blasting equipment. this guy sand blasted all my 80" panels going back 30 years ago & did not buckle any of the panels . He used to do a lot of blasting for my brother & I before we retired & sold our steel & alum fabrication business, & he did a lot of alum blasting for us . He has started using glass about 20 years ago as it was better for his health . He is a one man show.

Thanks for all the info Guys - there are plenty of options, my main driver is to clean without removing the steel galv capping. I really don’t want to or need to re- rivet! The more I can leave it original the better.
I think when I start I will pressure wash and start with paint stripper and see where I end up.
Again thanks.