Sandbathing on a snowy beach

[Vladislav]

This past summer I spent a good while removing a cab from the 2nd R-model and stripped it down to the bare metal. Cut off all the spots rust showed its presence. Also by a chance I purchased a pair of NOS rocker panels so cut the old ones off either. For further job some good cleaning was knocking on the project's door so i started waiting for weather. The other week cloudy and snowy times finally changed to a light freeze with a bit of sunshining. The forecast predicted only two lucky days following each other so I didn't waste the chance.

When you blast at freeze the air humidity is low. Even much lower than on a hot sunny summer day. So steel doesn't catch rust. Another issue is when you bring your parts into a warm room cold steel catches humidity from the inside air and makes condensation on its surface. So for the best you should cover the parts with film or cloth until they warm up to the inside temp or bring them in a shop or garage with low humidity. The best way I use is bringing them straigh to a pre-heated paint shop. Not this time since further metal works are planned. And 2nd time blasting after they're completed as a follow.

[Vladislav]

The final result of the party

[carlotpilot]

vlad     no wonder i can`t find( juan)  you got him over there

Edited January 20, 2019 by carlotpilot

[Vladislav]

21 hours ago, carlotpilot said:

vlad     no wonder i can`t find( juan)  you got him over there

He even said you hello

[JoeH]

Great advice on sandblasting in the cold!  If you have the ability, chill your garage before bringing the blasted parts in. Once the parts hit room temp then turn the heat up? 

Glad to see someone saving a good cab! Most of my R models have rust holes along the back of the roof! Doesn't help that we use muriatic acid to wash them, it's about the only thing that takes cement off....

[Vladislav]

No need to chill the garage. In fact high humidity is usually in the areas people are living/breathing/cooking/washing. So if your garage doesn't have a lot of water such as wet flloor or snow from tires brought in the humidity is low there. Relating to a living room or just a summer time open air. Seems like when you don't bring any water in a room and heating operates the wapors go away. The cab you see on the picture is in the warm garage for a week to the moment and I saw no fresh rusty spots so far. I should admitt to complete the matter cast iron is more critical about air humidity that steel. And I even prefre to blast and paint brake drums in winter. They used to show initial rust just in 2-3 hours after being ultimately blasted on a hot sunny day.

The cab was quite good at the time I put it in work. Excepting some rust in rocker panel seams you couldn't see from the outside and same of the seam where the floor is welded to the rear wall. The floor itsel had pretty much of thick surface rust being wet in the cab for years of outside storage. Also some stress cracks needed to be welded and the roof bent hard by people walking (or dancing?) on it.

The reason seemed the cab was good 1st it's galvanized 2nd not too old being 1988 made. On the other hand I doubt the truck spent any day under roof until I put it in a garage to part out this past summer.