My fender has some surface rust. I already used a DA with an 80 . Will glass blasting or other remove this surface rust. I am debating if it is worth the cost to have it blasted, worried the metal will warp ... I have tried a bucket hand held blaster with silica sand to test if the pits will clean out., and ended up with tiny pits still. any ideas. pic attached shows rust before additional DA sanding a quick hit with sand blaster rust is lighter in color...thanks

 

You're making exactly the progress you want to see. To answer your question on the media blasting, glass bead or sand will remove rust. Plastic media will not. You will not eliminate the pits in the metal as those are there for good. When the metal rusted, that metal was lost to oxidation and can't be brought back. What you want to see is that the pits are clean and are free of the rust. Work at it a little more with the sand and you'll get it where it needs to be.

I would be hesitant to send the fender to a commercial blaster and have them use sand as they will likely warp the metal. And the sand they use is normally very coarse. The small blaster you have should do just fine for those areas. Now if you have a lot more rust than is shown in the photos, then you might want to try to show a photo of how much rust you are dealing with for further discussion.

I have a small 100lb sand blaster that I use for rust like you show as well as blasting the jams on fenders and doors. I typically set the pressure to 80-90 psi which works well. I use play sand (you'll need to filter it through a screen) and it leaves a nice smooth finish.

Once you eliminate the rust, wipe it down with wax and grease remover and apply an epoxy primer. I think I detailed this for you before on the epoxy and primer but I can explain more of it if you need me to run through the steps. Using a primer that has a build quality will fill in those pits. Anything a little deep can be taken care of with a glazing putty or even a little body filler. Body filler would go over the epoxy and the glazing putty would go over the primer. Just make sure you try to apply the epoxy as soon as you get the fender free of rust so it doesn't start to oxidize.

Brian

 

Try this: http://www.instructables.com/id/Elec...val-aka-Magic/

 

i would use glass if it were me. glass is a little more forgiving on the metal.

 

Another image of another spot I sand blasted. The pits hold rust, and I assume this is as clean as as I will ever get it. Image is an up close shot. thanks for the replys...

 

Your sand blaster may need a little more air pressure and maybe a finer sand. I've dealt with this same thing and my small blaster will remove the rust without any problems. What type air compressor are you using and what is it's rating in terms of HP and CFM?

 

Yeah - that doesn't look "fully blasted" to me, but it's probably good enough, after application of an etching agent, to last for many, many years.

- Eric

 

X2, this method removes NO metal and all of the rust.

 

wow , yet another process to get rid of rust , i like this one the best.....thanks for posting this

 

I gave the bucket sand blaster another try, and it ended up removing all of that rust from the pits, actually did a pretty good job. Had a few other spots I had to sand blast.. The downfall is that it is slow, may take a few passes but you can't damage/warp the panel. Spots are shinny, rust free.. Still have to do the pass side.. I am almost out of sand. I may switch over to glass bead,… read this stuff works well, and read that is does not work as well as sand, less aggressive... I know my main issue lies with Cfm of the compressor. I am concerned this glass bead will double the effort. Having a harder time finding the sand…so may have to go to bead or some thing else..thanks..

 

The black abrasive works really well, FWIW...

- Eric

 

yes it does , and in Wisconsin you cant get silica sand anymore , so thats what they offer now (black) ......It seemed to work better then sand , and when done just sweep it up and put through a screen and use again until its powder