Media Blasting done, what now?

I've finished glass beading and sand blasting all/most of my parts. Everything on this bike came painted rattle can black, the paint was chipping and overall looked really terrible. I after several days of pain and discomfort I built my own sand blasting setup and got all the parts cleaned up. I used a #8 Medium glass bead on all the engine parts, and other small pieces.

Now I'm wondering what I should do next, I kind of like this glass blasted look on the crank cases, but I have a feeling it wouldn't stand up very well if I left it that way. Anybody have experience polishing parts like these? Does that help fight against rust? I live in Oregon, it rains, a lot!




As for the bigger parts, like my swingarm, forks and wheels, I've sand blasted them with a basic cheap sand, they didn't end up pitted or with much of a rough texture, which is great. I think I'll be painting them, I can't really fit powder coating into my budget. Any suggestions on paint? I've heard this Appliance Enamel works well, but I have a hard time ordering something made for painting refrigerators. I'd also like something with more color selection so at least I can consider other options than black.



By the way, if you're thinking about building a cabinet out of a couple storage tubs and 2 rolls of duct tape, i would suggest you reconsider. Only an idiot would do that

That looks painful on your back! Is there a viewing window?

I pictured the gloves you duct-taped to the cabinet as disposable latex gloves and laughed out loud.

Have a can of WD-40 handy and wash the parts in slightly soapy warm to hot water to get the embeded sand and grease/oils out of your parts. It'l help with the painting too. WD-40 is for the cylinder walls to prevent rust. Sandblasting by Braille? That's new!

Travis said:

That looks painful on your back! Is there a viewing window?

Click to expand...

Yeah it really was a terrible setup. I think that picture was taken before the plastic went completely opaque, after that we cut out a hole and found an old piece of glass from a picture frame and taped that in.

OakBehringer said:

I pictured the gloves you duct-taped to the cabinet as disposable latex gloves and laughed out loud.

Click to expand...

Lol, not quite latex, we bought these $7 gloves from Harbor freight, which fell apart instantly.

I sand blasted a lot of stuff years ago in an only slightly fancier home made blast cabinet.

the cardboard box "shim" looks plenty sturdy as well......

Ingenuity at it's best. Good for you for tackling the effort and creating your own tool for the job. It worked didn't it!

This probably the best thing I have ever seen....... ever. Well, at least for today....

lots of sanding to follow if you want hi shine parts. I just did the same to some parts for another project and rubbed everything down pretty good with red scotchbrite pad. It's a real dull polish finish.

You should duct tape a maglite on the inside of your blasting cabinet...hey what ever works huh, you got the shit blasted

That is FN awesome Patches! I love it....