As you are aware, I have a 77 GMC Suburban - in case you are wondering those things are huge, especially if you are faced with the daunting task of removing several layers of paint off the whole body.

My question surrounds Sand blasting. Before I get out the air compressor and sand, I would like to know if sand blasting is a good thing to do.

I know that all of the body is good old American Steel, and most of it is in good shape (there are a bit of bubbled rust deposits at the bottom of the body).

Some scratches in the metal are fine with me, I will be using a thick metal paint on the roof to seal and protect (flat auto roofs tend to be the first to start rusting) and mid way up the side I will be applying Truck Bed coating.

My concern comes with the rest of the body, between the mid line and the roof line - If I sand blast will it leave a badly scratched surface?

I have never used sand blasting near windows - What is the best method of protecting the glass? Would cardboard provide enough protection?

any recommendations that you can give on the stripping of all those layers of paint and removal of rust (hopefully with out hand sanding the whole thing) would be greatly appreciated.

David

David, I have used blasting cabinets to clean parts and restore engine and suspension pieces. I would not recommend for the body of your Suburban unless you plan to completely disassemble the body. The main reason is that those sand particles will find their way into cracks and crevices that you cannot cover up. And there is no foolproof way to protect the glass.

FYI if you do decide to go ahead with bead blasting: The larger the media (bead) the smoother and more polished the result. I know that sounds a little contrary to logic, but it's true. Exactly the opposite of sand paper where the finer the grit the more polished the look.

I suggest that you use a chemical stripper over the entire body and then sand the rest of the way to bare metal. The striper will get about 95% of the old paint. Sanding will get the rest and also reveal any low spots. Spray a light coat of primer on after you have finished stripping and do light sanding again. This will reaveal any of those low spots you may have missed and allow you to fill them with body filler.

You don't have to "hand" sand it, by the way. Use a rotary sander. The hand sanding doesn't come into play until you are re-painting the vehicle. And you definitely should wet sand between coats of paint.

It's a tedious and messy process, but not really any more so than bead blasting. And you will be very pleased with the final result.