Sandblasting and painting underbody ??

[NashBronco]

So I have removed everything from the interior so that I could replace the front floor pans. I am likely going to have interior media blasted and then put Lizard Skin and Carpet inside. I am "thinking" I want to have the underside of the tub blasted and then Put POR or some other product. I will have fixed the rust issues so I want to try to coat the "underbody"

Here is my question: has anyone ever blasted and painted the underbody while the body was still on the frame? I know it will be a pain but I do not want to paint the exterior (has patina look) and do not want to remove the body because that's a slippery slope.

Certainly open to other ideas but I am mainly looking for tips on doing this with the body on. Also, I have to find a blaster willing to do it with the body on as I won't blast it myself.

Thanks
houston

 

[helo-mech]

I did the reverse, blasted the inside while still on the frame, and there is one thing I wish I had done differently; I wish I had pulled the wiring harness and all of the electrical items out of the dash and body first. I had a horrible experience with all of the soda, did soda blasting, in every nook and cranny.

I know that is not what you were asking, but I just wanted to throw that out there. Let me know if you are interested, and I will post up some pics of everywhere the media found its way to, and the items it destroyed.

 

[NashBronco]

Thanks Helo. Do you think taping the from and underside of the dash would solve this? Would love to see pictures.

 

[NC-Fordguy]

POR doesn't like to adhere to blasted sheet metal. It will stick to their etching compound that you can apply to metal after it's been blasted.

 

[bearskinner]

If your going to put on new body mounts, now would be a good time to get them. Get some 4x4 blocks and block the body off the frame so you can get the body mounts cleaned and treated too. If it hasn't had new mounts it surely needs them

 

[helo-mech]

If you check the link at the bottom of my posts, you'll find the some pictures of the damage. The speedo, radio, heater, and the firewall insulation took a beating. In addition, I ended up pulling every single dash switch; many have been replaced.

The areas that were not supposed to be blasted were taped, wrapped in plastic, covered with masking paper, and taped some more. Didn't matter, it still got everywhere. That being said, had a I done the taping/masking maybe I would have been more careful and prevented it all, but I doubt it. That stuff goes everywhere.

As for the final product of the soda blasting, I could not have been happier. It really cleaned my panels, and did not warp a thing. I used Metal Ready on the panels, lined with POR-15, put on a layer of Herculiner and installed a new carpet kit. Works great.

 

[RPM289]

I would see if you can find someone that has a "Dustless wet blaster" I have used one a bunch and it works great you will need to protect anything you don't want wet or media in. But results are great and it is fast also.