Im getting a set of wheels froma dude in Maryland in like 3 weeks. I want to have them beadblasted as they are aluminum. Is there anyone in the area that does bead blasting on the cheap??
I have a set of some sick BBS’ that need some blasting as well.
why glass bead? just curious.
you can totally sand blast aluminum afaik
yea, there is no problem sandblasting aluminum as long as you don’t keep it in one single spot for too long. I did my aluminum wheels just fine. What size wheels are they?
I would imagine sand being cheaper than glass bead as well?
:rofl
thats what i thought i read at first
They are 15x7 Borbet Type E’s. Im getting a pretty killer deal on them with tires to make the 12 hour round trip to get them.
best be like -15 offset
I have a sandblaster, but its just a simple one so I could probably do them but it will take a while on each one… lol. When you get them, let me know and I can do one to see what it’s going to take then see about the others.
Will do man.Im just waiting for the guy to get back me so I can make the trip to Maryland.
Walnut shells work great too. takes a bit longer to strip paint or powder coat off alum, but it doenst leave the surface pitted up or rough. Sand will work fine too but like you said keep the gun moving!
I dont have a cab yet. wish i did.
More details on walnut shells please.
im looking for soda blasting myself actually for my BBS wheels.
you can get a sac from harbor freight. I think they are like $19 for 20lbs or what ever the big bag is. They are softer than sand but still get the job done. Even on the sections of the wheel that were polished it didnt even faze the metal. It cuts right through the original paint nicely though.
I would personally use aluminum oxide personally. and u could ask sully what the name of the stuff was that he used.
U must use a finer media not matter what on the alum debating on the finish product that ur going for !!. otherwise it will leave a super rough surface.
But u don’t have to take my word for it.
Soda media really requires a proper cabinet to use. Even too high of humidity will fuck up your gun and cause it to not feed. Our soda blasting machine is a finiky bitch and we spend more time making it work right than actually blasting parts. It’s a big machine though, can fit a Triton V10 block on the turbtable easy, so it’s got alot of volume to absorb moisture.
Stick with an 800-1K grit oxide media. Walnut works good too, just set your blaster up for it as it jams easy. You can prework the paint by slathering paint stripper on it and just letting them sit to dry completely. buy a few cans of aerosol paint stripper to make it even easier. It breaks the adhesion and makes the blasting process go 1000x quicker. Piant blasts right off in sheets.
Great point with the paint stripper. Thats exactly what I did too. I used a 1/3 of a can of that Aircraft remover paint stripper. sprayed it on, let it sit a few hours and dry completely. Then whe wheel will look like a 90 year old snatch all dried up, and you can use a fine media to blast it right off.
ah, ty for the info, Adam. I’ll look into walnut blasting. Never heard of that though.
Yea, I used some on the valve cover for my eclipse to get that black paint off it. It looked absolutely scary when it was peeling up. I used a pressure washer and a rough sponge to get the paint off it, but it worked ridiculously well. You think it will work just as well on my factory wheel finish?
it prolly wont eat all the paint off, the factory stuff is strong. might even be powder coating, not sure. It will eat the shit outa the stuff though and will loosen it to help remove it. power washer up close might remove it… but you be getting covered in acid/paint remover spatter when you shoot the wheel point blank with a power washer!
so, i guess i could go with walnut. maybe we can do a “group buy” type thing where a few of us get in on it once we can wear summer shoes and do it in spring?