Power washing, wet sandblasting.

It was Labor Day today and I decided to tackle power washing and wet sandblasting parts of the vehicle and vehicle frame.

First thing I had to do was to get the get the vehicle out of the garage and that would be a challenge because I no longer have a car trailer so I thought I'd try and load it onto my boat trailer. A challenge to say the least.

Will it be strong enough to hold the car? How do I get the trailer under the car with the jack stands in the way? How do I keep the car on the trailer and stop it from falling off?

I was working all alone this morning as I let my family sleep in being a holiday and all.

It took me at least an hour to get the vehicle off the jack stands and onto the boat trailer and out of the garage.

It was a painstaking process and I cannot not show you how I did it because #1. I was alone and could not take the time to take pictures, and #2. If any of my former teachers at Dunwoody would have seen what I did to load it on the trailer they would be very disappointed in me and my "back yard mechanic" shenanigans.

I do have pictures of the vehicle already on the boat trailer. (See below) I could not have used that trailer if the car was all together, she'd have been way too heavy. HA, HA!

Car on the trailer, outside the garage for the 1st time since last November when I pushed it in the garage.

I started cleaning the front end and engine bay to rid the car of the 60+ year old grease and oil in the engine bay, transmission area, and all those many, many grease zerks on the front steering linkage. That was a chore!

I sprayed grease remover all over the steering linkage, engine bay and transmission area and I let that soak in for about 15 minutes. I then proceeded to power wash all of it removing all that grease and oil. It took a bit, but I got'r done.

After I finished power washing all the grease and grime off the front end of the vehicle I moved on to the interior floors and wet sandblasted all of them along with the trunk area.

I've been itching to use my new sandblasting attachment for my power washer and for the most part it works quite well. I did have some issues with the pick up tube blocking up here and there and not shooting out sand, but it worked and I can now see clearly all the metal I have to replace.

I went through 6 bags of silica sand at $20.00 U.S. from Menard's and each bag weighed 50 lbs/22.6796 kgs per bag.

I had forgotten how incredibly messy wet sandblasting is, but it's not dusty and that's why I chose it over air sandblasting.

My first trip to Menard's I purchased 2 bags of sand.

I went through those two bags in 30 minutes and I had only completed the drivers side and part of the left rear passenger floor.

I went back to Menard's and purchased another 4 bags of sand. I ran out of that sand right at the end of my job while finishing the trunk area. I didn't get the trunk blasted that way that I wanted, but it'll do. Oh, by the way, each trip to town takes me 20 minutes one way. I was not a happy camper having to go to town twice because of bad planning on my part. I usually over buy on a project like this and then return the stuff I don't use and I didn't do that this time.

Before sandblasting (above)

After sandblasting (below)

After wet sandblasting the interior and the trunk area I had to completely power wash the whole vehicle to rid it of the sand that was left in it. That took about and hour or so.

As you can see I will have to replace both sides of the floor in the front of the vehicle and I will also need to replace a good chunk of the trunk floor. As you can see in the above picture, the corner of the trunk is rotted.

There are parts of the trunk that I did not take pictures of right next to where the rear bumper is where the trunk is completely rotted through.

I had expected to replace the trunk floor or completely re-fabricating the trunk to accommodate the new frame work for the 4 link rear end and the air bag coil over shock suspension I want to install.

Here's an example.

Due to the air bag or air ride system I want to install the frame in the rear of the car will need to have special bracing. It may have to be completely rebuilt to handle the stresses that will be applied when the air ride coil over suspension is installed.

The 1950 Pontiac is an X frame car that is not the strongest frame and not real conducive to high horse power, but I want to work with what I have instead of making or purchasing a completely new frame.

I'm happy the sandblasting is over because it's something I've wanted to do since I started tearing the vehicle down and now it's completed.

I started sandblasting and cleaning the vehicle at 0900 hrs and I finished around 1800 hrs. No lunch, no beer, just power washing and drinking water. 9 hours total.

More pictures of me blasting away at the car.

Next up for the interior is cutting out the rusted floor boards and replacing them with brand new, paint priming what's left so that it doesn't continue to rust.

Stay tuned, more yet to come.