sandblasting ?

[aldochina]

do you guys clean your parts with any solvent after sandblasting, and before paint, or just blow off with compressed air or what?

[Erics350x]

paint thinner or metal prep to remove body oils from handling

[aldochina]

i have a big jug of paint thinner but because of the rough surface the sandblasting leaves im afraid to wipe it with any kind of rag because it always sheds those little fibers. I was thinking maybe carb or brake cleaner in an aresol can?

[Texas 200x]

I'd wipe it with thinner then blow it with compressed air. If your doing a tank or something along those lines you can pick up the lint with a Tack-cloth.

[TriMotoMan]

i dont i just paint them and my parts turned out great

[SCRAMCHARGER318]

you should not have to do anything to the metal except blow it off, i should not be handled by anyone with bare hands, if your sandblaster handles it with bare hands, get a new sandblaster. any solvent use is a waist of time and resources.
blow it off and prime it.

[aldochina]

well we got 2 for cleaning, and 2 for blow + go. I need a tie breaker!! Keep in mind these are my back up wheels they will just be sprayed with some duplicolor wheel coating. then cleared. It doesnt say anything about priming on the can, but i've never not primed bare metal. Has anyone ever used duplicolor wheel paint? I have a nicer set of wheels that I am having powder coated.

[Texas 200x]

In that case, blast them blow them off, prime them and paint them. Try your best not to touch them with bare hands. You can put latex gloves on but I wouldn't go through that much trouble. You are just painting them from a spray can. Don't worry about it to much.

[Dirtcrasher]

It's nearly impossible to not touch the part, It has to be hung etc etc. I use acetone on a lint free cloth and I'll never just blow them off before finishing. It just takes one area that isn't prepped to ruin the finish.

But, I'd also never bother to sandblast parts I used a 4$ spraycan on. If it gets ridden, it won't last so why do all the prep work....

[tecat-z]

Me, blast and paint with martin senior acrylic enamel. No primer or anything. The surface is as good as it gets after proper blasting. Paint really "bites" in. I've painted all my frames this way as well as every one of my friends bikes, and it holds up better than oem. The oem's didn't use primer either. Have a look for yourself under the color. Never seen one that did. Not Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki. or even street bikes i've done. Gas tanks, different story..........

[TriMotoMan]

it doesnt matter if u touch it our not i just sand blasted my parts to get rid of rust

[Dirtcrasher]

it doesnt matter if u touch it our not i just sand blasted my parts to get rid of rust


The oil on your skin is enough to stop the paint from adhering.....

We're splitting hairs here, if you just spraybombing the parts that there is no need to go to additional steps. In that case, wire brushing or wire wheeling them may be just fine before you paint them too.

It's just my feeling that if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it the best I can. I sandblasted and powdercoated 75% of the 86 200X I built this year. And after all that work, if anything was chipping off I would have been pissed.

I am NOT a painter, I do pretty well with powder but paint isn't something I've done a ton of. But I do know it has to be clean clean clean before paint and or primer is shot.


Now, just so you know about PC as a choice. The gun is about 80$ (Eastwood has a nice gun), you need a blaster (an air compressor of course) and some powder supplies (acetone, powder, high temp tape). Craigslist gets you a free oven. You can break into powder coating for a couple hundred bucks and the results are outstanding. These are some of the very first parts I ever powder coated. It's easy and extremely durable!!

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/Dirtcrasher/RTSwingerassembled.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/Dirtcrasher/18Topendclose.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/Dirtcrasher/18MotorMountsclose.jpg

The only thing I'll bother to paint are gas tanks (because you have to bondo the dents) and frames because I haven't built a bigger oven yet!

[cybrman]

I'm with DC powder coating is the way to go. I need to upgrade my gun using the $70 Harbor Freight now and its not too bad. Definitely has its issues but persistence pays off usually.
Get some powder from Caswell or PBTB (powder by the pound), and an oven off of craigslist. I bought mine for $50, mainly cause its a damn pain in the ass to score a free one, unless you sit there and refresh the page to be the first to see it. Your results may vary...good luck!
As for clean or not to clean...I do occassinally clean some pieces, always with brake cleaner cause its not oil based. But mostly I simply heat em up in the oven for a half hour and they are "baked" clean. I even get sand from the blasting coming out of the threaded holes sometimes.

[aldochina]

Lots of helpful info. I would love to get into powder coating myself, and probably will eventually. but right now I need to get this thing rideable. I have a decent 20 gallon pressurized blaster that I just bought, so blasting the wheels took literally 5 min. The tires are still an the rims by the way. I just used a piece of sheet metal and curved it around the rim to protect the tire from the abrasive. They came out sweet. Is there anything besides PC that you can recomend. I dont have a paint gun, so I was going to try to do the best i can with the duplicolor wheel paint, but if anyone has any ideas I'm open. They dont have to be perfect as i said, I have a nicer set I will have powder coated eventually. I do want them to hold up a little while though. To keep the paint off the tire you can wipe a thin film of vaseline on the side wall, then wipe it off when finished. Works good.

[Erics350x]

Duplicolor wheel paint looks pretty good but doesn't hold up that well. Good luck.