Its also a job that you don't do without a respirator, basting helmet and a set of cover alls. Even then it seems to find its way into any nook or cranny not sealed up.

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The results look great Kevin!

It looks good.

What't your strategy for getting the grit out of the cavities and crevices before painting?

What media did you use, and how many bags total were used for the underside of the car and wheel wells (did you do engine compartment at the same time?).. thx.


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Another couple of hours blasting. Got about half of the underside of the car done. 2 issues I am up against. First I broke the gravity feed valve this morning in the full open position.....you cant blast with 1 pound of media per second...lol. So off to buy a new valve. Second was water build up. It was very humid after the storms last night, and even with two water filters in the system, it just couldn't keep up. So time to take a break and clean up. More blasting tomorrow.

Bob,
I have fasioned a compressed air line that fits into the longs and have found that with the car upside down I can clean them out pretty good. Lots of compressed air and continually spinning the car on the rotisserie....hopefully I can get the majority of it out. How were you able to get it out on your car, I'm sure you said in your post, but I am open to any and all suggestions.


Doug,

I am using coal slag on the bottom. Thats why it is imperative to wear a respirator and the hood. It does the job and I am okay with it on the underside of the car and places like the hell holes, etc. But I think it might be too aggresive for the body, So I will either switch media to something softer or have the top side done with a soda blaster. I do plan on doing the engine compartment as well with theis set-up.
I am reusing the media, and have gotten a couple of rounds on a 50 lb bag. I do sift it for large chunks though as I have already clogged the nozzle a few times. I would plan on another bag or 2, as after using it twice it has gotten pretty dusty.

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Finally got a bit more blasting in between house building jobs. Finished the fron trunk pan and steering rack area,

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And worked in the right inner front fender area. What a pain, the space is tight and blasting media just comes right back at you.

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The area under the sill came out real clean and no deep rust at all.

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The right rear mount looks real good too, no rust and very solid.

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Got most of the right hell hole done along with the majority of the fire wall...

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So, overall I have about 5 or 6 hours of blasting done and am about half way through the underside and engine compartment.

To answer some questions...Is this doable....yes. Is it pleasant...Absolutely not, it is very messy. Would I do it again, nope. I would save up the money to have a dustless blaster come out and do it. I figure by the time I am done, I will have about 12-15 hours invested, Cost about $200.00. I will gladly pay the $900-$1000 to have someone else do this job.

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Save some energy to vacuum and blow and wipe and bang and swab and repeat and repeat and repeat. And even then stray abrasive will appear as soon as you start to paint.

Totally agree Bob, and then I still have to clean the garage. Will finish this one, but when I do the second twin, I am paying the money..

Another few hours of blasting today...between heat and humidity and all the dust, it makes for a miserable project. Cant wait to be done...But, got most of the front trunk blasted

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And the air intake grill...figured this is allot better than trying to sand the openings by hand

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The passenger compartment is done

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Engine compartment .....Done

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Bottom of the body...Done
So Monday I will finish the rear trunk and touch up a few other areas and blasting will be done.

Thank Goodness. Happy Easter everyone.

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Well, Finally got done with the media blasting. What a mess. Next few days will be spent just cleaning the garage.

So, if you ever feel tempted to media blast your car, spend the money and have a dustless blaster come do it for you. It takes an average of 9 hours, so at anywhere from 75-100 per hour its worth it. Just my humble opinion.

Forgot to post the Pics of the finished Blasting job. I decided not to blast most of the outside body panels and will prep them by DR sander and hands on sanding. If you look carefully at the ceiling, yuo can see where the tent was, it totally discolored the sheet rock....Damn.

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The underside of the car and the engine compartment came out really nice though.

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And after two full days of garage cleaning and spinning the car about 100 times, I think I have gotten the majority of the media out of the car and out of the garage. Now I guess I will just have to finish the sheetrock and paint over the whole ceiling so I can cover up the grey square I created....

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You've done a great job!

Looks great, both the blasting job and condition of the body metal.

Maybe a bunch of posters on the ceiling?

Lmao, never thought of the poster thing, used to have those in my teenage years.... great idea... .girls, cars or both?

Today started the next chapter in this build. Started covering up the metal that was blasted over the past week. I started in the passenger front wheel well. This is what it looked like after blasting...

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I filled in along the new seam where the flares were attached with body filler , just to pretty up the seam. Then covered all of the other seems with new seam sealer.

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After sanding the seam smooth where the flare mated up and letting the seam sealer cure, I painted the wheel well and most of the bottom of the car with 2K Epoxy. Man that is some nasty stuff, don't spray that without a respirator....

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It looks great Kevin! In hindsight, I wish I would've taken more time on the underside of my project.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks Rob. I finally feel like I have turned the corner and I am actually starting to build the car rather than tear it appart. I appreciate the encouragement...

Taking the time to blast the entire chassis is well worth it. It will make everything from that point on so much easier and rewarding when you get to the color stage.

I think a lot of cars get repainted over old, poor body work with products that were just not that great back in the heyday of the 914. The result is typically paint failure a few years down the road after all that hard work. Stripping the chassis and starting fresh with known excellent products is the way to go.

Got a bit more painting done today to include the underside of the rear trunk and the rear jacking points

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Both of the rear suspension points... what a pain getting all those angles....

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And of course the lower wall where all of the brake, shift linkage and fuel lines come through...

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One thing I liked about blasting the car was getting the grounding points absolutely clean. So I made sure to mask this off before painting. These should get great ground connection....

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Wow, this is really coming along!

Didn't get anything too exciting done on the car today. A bit of hand sanding....But i did get some cool stuff from 914 Rubber...

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Good to see you still chipping away at it Kevin..

I just got my pressurized blaster tank and am about to start back at it my self. Will be starting on the same items you’ve just done, but may hold off and get running gear blasted and painted first. I would suggest that we’d be finishing up our first projects about the same time .. but we all know that you’re the ‘man on a mission’ here, so I won’t jinx myself


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[quote name='Literati914' date='Apr 26 2022, 08:24 PM' post='2998017']
Good to see you still chipping away at it Kevin..

I just got my pressurized blaster tank and am about to start back at it my self. Will be starting on the same items you’ve just done, but may hold off and get running gear blasted and painted first. I would suggest that we’d be finishing up our first projects about the same time .. but we all know that you’re the ‘man on a mission’ here, so I won’t jinx myself


Hey Doug,

We are men on the same mission in different towns. Keep at it, its a great feeling when we turn the corner and start seeing things go back together rather than constantly tearing things apart. When we finish, we will have to go on a two Porsche cruise somewhere in this great state of Texas.

Today I decided to start addressing body issues that will be mostly out of sight out of mind. In the front trunk there is an area of rust that did not come completely clean during blasting. This got treated with Ospho rust converter.

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Then I decided to address the patch that had been put in by the PO on the passenger firewall. The seams are solid, but not pretty. So I decided to cover the top seam with body filler. The lower seam gets seam sealer.


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Got the first layer of filler on the top seam. Still plenty of shaping and sanding to do.

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And the first layer applied to the outside of the firewall as well.

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Another area of damage from a prior collision was the rear inner engine wall. The repair to the quarter panel was actually done quite well. But they didn't replace the inner wall. They just hammered out most of the krinkles and it was filled with layer upon layer of high build primer. So I wanted to fill the real deep stuff with filler.

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First coating filled most of the deep creases...I think a skim coat then using high build primer will help the appearance in the end.

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Didn't want to do the second coats of filler today, so took a little time to fill some seams.
The lower seam on the firewall. I tried to stipple it so it would look somewhat original, but that turned into a total mess, so I just finished it smooth, will see if I can come up with an idea to change the appearance to resemble spray on sealer....

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Then with what was left in the tube of sealer, I started in the hell hole areas. Notice that in the right hell hole, Bkrantz's prediction of blast media sneaking out of somewhere has come true....

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Well this week has been a bit slow for car fun, been preparing for a family visit. But I did get most of the engine compartment done. Still a bit to do on the driver's side hell hole.

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Passenger side hell hole and inner wall.

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That looks nice.