1974 Chevy Nova My first project car

Sandblasting

It's been a few weeks since my last post, so I thought I'd post today before I forget everything that I have done thus far. There are a couple things I need to mention before getting started. There is someone that deserves to get credit for his help and is entitled to be publicly recognized. This person, despite the fact that he is a hardcore Ford guy, has been helping me with my Nova since the day I made the purchase. Uncle nameless, with his permission, will now be referred to as "Uncle Kurt", or Kurt for short. Please see my previous posts for references to Uncle Nameless. And while I'm at it, I might as well say that my self-proclaimed "Fav Uncle" is Uncle Jim.

The Saturday after my last post, Uncle Kurt and I made a trip to the west side of Cleveland to pick up my brother's winter tires for his newly purchased Chrysler Crossfire. We were talking on the way and I ended up passing the interchange I was supposed to take and we were about 10-15 minutes later than I anticipated. On top of that, it rained the whole time we were at the dealership, so we were not able to look at the engine. We did, however, sat in and inspected the interior with our approval. We headed back to my house in the rain and our planned out day was not looking too great.

When we got back to my house, we put the tires in the rafters of the garage, to keep them out of the way. I showed Uncle Kurt my whole garage setup and all the work I had done thus far. The pictures taken don't really do any justice. We had planned on removing the front sub-frame and taking it to his house. Since I had sprayed the body mount bushings a few nights before with PB Blaster several times, we spent only a few minutes removing it. Since it was still raining, we decided not to take the frame to his house to start the sandblasting. Instead, he helped me fix a few things in my garage like, the sagging support for the garage door opener.

We made plans for me to go to his house on Monday with the frame and start the sandblasting. He called me Monday after work and said that the plan is a no-go. His well pump failed on him and he would be replacing it that evening. Since I had planned on going over there anyway, I offered my assistance to carry out the replacement. It's a good thing I did, because the sucker was heavy and awkward to pull it out of the well and lower the new in. Plus, I was there until nearly midnight. As a side note, the pipe that had been replaced is still laying in the grass in the side yard (as far as I know).

I believe I came over the next day to start sandblasting. The picnic table was moved over to the corner of the garage. The sandblaster was filled with sand. The "beekeepers hood" and the hot gloves were brought out. The air hose was unreeled to reach outside the garage. All vehicles were moved out of the sand over-spray zone. And finally, the frame was moved and set on top of the picnic table. Uncle Kurt started sandblasting and getting the pressure and the sand velocity dialed in. He handed over the hood, gloves, and the blasting tool and said that he'll be a few yards away, splitting wood.

It was going pretty smoothly for about 5 minutes, until a few things went wrong. There was a lot of stopping, shaking the tank, adjusting the levers, emptying the moisture filter, unhooking the air hose, emptying the air, unscrewing the nozzle, and unclogging the pebbles. These pebbles, we thought, were the remnants of unfiltered sand that was reused by the last operator of the sand blaster—Uncle Jim. After we completely emptied the tank, unhooked all the fittings, and unclogged the lines, we filtered the sand we just emptied and put the sand back into the tank. We found a couple handfuls of pebbles that were waiting to clog the nozzle.

After a few debates and accusations of how these pebbles got into the tank, we decided to filter the next bag of sand before using it. Surprisingly, we found a handful of pebbles in a single bag. We did point out that the bag does say commercial grade sand and says nothing about use with sandblasters. A big apology was made to the accused and he was let off the hook. We have all learned our lesson and will now filter any kind of sandblasting media before using it.

Here are a few before, during, and after pictures.