THE 1963 THUNDERBIRD ITALIEN


Chapter 22 - SAND BLASTING

Copyright © Thomas Maruska 2008
All Rights Reserved


This is one part of the job that it's always a relief when it's over with.

I begin by getting all the parts that need sandblasting piled up alongside the car. 
The car is on it's side on the rotisserie.


Then I erect a tent over the car and parts inside the shop.
I use the frame work that you see over vendors spaces at swap meets
and cover the top and all sides with 4 mil clear poly.
I take it to the floor with duct tape to keep the sand confined within the tent.
The tent is 11X25X7 high and allows ample room for this stage of the project.
I have the tent connected to the exhaust fan in the side wall of the shop
with a 2 foot square tube constructed of 2x2 framework and
again, wrapped with poly.
When I'm blasting, I open the back window in the shop and cut an opening
 in the back of the tent to allow air in to replace that which
is exhausted through the fan.  It works quite well at keeping dust in the
air to a minimum.
I use silica sand for blasting and I wear a paint respirator inside the blasting hood.
The sand gets swept up and sifted and re used about 5 times on a bullet bird.
I start with 1000 pounds of sand.






This picture shows the inside of the rear wheel tub where it was cut to accomodate
the modified rear wheel opening on the Italien.
The cust were tack brazed together and also just tacked along the opening.





This shows the bottom of the floor on the drivers side.  It is partially sandblasted
and you can see how nice and solid it is.  Many bullet birds I've restored are quite rusty in this area.


This is after the sandblasting is completed.  The Italien is upside down and the
rusty look is a combination of residue of the original red oxide primer and dust.
I had clamps along the top of the windshield frame and along the fins
just to insure the fiberglass roof system didn't fall out.



Here are the small parts all cleaned up and ready for new primer.



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