danboback

Very inspiring stuff, makes me want to go outside and start a frame off on my Vette!

kortensi

ouch. ouch , ouch

Waiting for the spurs to start playing.

kortensi

Well last night I got some time to do some more blasting. Home Depot and Lowes only had play sand and I've been using a screen to filter it to remove the larger bits of stone. It doesn't work very well. The blaster still clogs up every couple of minutes. I have to shut everything down, clear the blockage and then start it back up again. I just need to find a place that has actual sandblasting sand.
Anyway, I got about the first 1/3 of the top of the frame blasted last night and then I had to watch the Spurs get beat down.
Here she is so far.

mrtroutjedi

i bought blasting sand at menards

kortensi

We don't have a Menards here in Texas but I found a local place that has a 100 lb bag for only $4.00. I'm going to go get a couple this evening.

A C

Nice work. Your frame didn't look too bad in it's original condition. the birdcage rot was getting there, but I have seen worse here on the forum. You must be kind of ****...and that's good. I'd much rather see a guy go overboard and do everything right than halfass the car.

On a side note, I knew our frame welds were not that nice, but geez! Those welds look like crap!

Good luck with the frame off. I imagine you'll be buying/redoing lots of parts, as you seem to want to get it done right.

rosslato

you're vette will b back together by then. sounds like the same sandblaster i got from harbor freight. frame is lookn good

corvettecris

Maybe someday I can do this...

KALAWAY

I"m glad my car didn't come apart when I changed the radio fuse.

fl_rider

That IS the way to "Get er done"!!

Looking forward to more updates.

Chris B

clarence-nieuwhof

Cool . We are just begining with our frame off. Interior is out and we are getting the check list ready and also building a rotisserie. We plan to put the frame on it for blasting and then por15 and after that while the body is on a dolly we will put that on the rotisserie . We are building the rotisserie on an old hay wagon frame so that we can just hook the up to the truck and get the body over to a paint shop. BIG plans and hope it goes smooth . I have been reading forever on this so we will see if what is published is true

kortensi

Well I got a chance to work on her some more last night.
The new sand works much better.
I also figured out that if I only open the sand nozzle about a third instead of full, the sand lasts a lot longer.

Here are some more pics.

LIQUIDDRAGON

lookin good i love following posts like this one so keep the pictures and updates coming

rosslato

Game 7 coming rite at us thurs nite, ought to be a duzzie. which way is the wind gonna blow? how many bags of sand u used so far? what size compressor u using?

NHvette

Your frame looks to be in excellent shape. Keep it up and keep us posted.
If not running a drier on your air hose, moisture might be contributing to the gun clogging up.
Hope your neighbors are cool with it.

kortensi

I've got a Craftsman (electric powered) and have gone through about 300lbs of sand so far. But since I figured out the adjustments I expect to use a lot less. GO Spurs!

The sandblaster has a water trap built into it, but some still gets through. The neighbors haven’t said anything, yet, but they aren’t mine. I live in an apartment and this is my best friend’s house. He is letting me use his garage. Thanks again Chris!

jbroughton

Your frame's looking great... your yard's starting to look like a beach with all that sand!

rosslato

CONGRATULATIONS TO U AND THE SPURMS, i mean spurs

kortensi

Yea Spurs, OK that’s done, back to work.

I finished sand blasting the frame and brackets this weekend and I went through about 500lbs of sand.
I planed to gusset the frame but every steel place that I called in SA closed at noon on Saturday. I found a place to rent the welder from for only $40.
I cut out some templates for the gussets but I was wondering about them.
Do they look right? I saw some in here from NHvette’s (I think) and they look like they go under the frame, where I was just filling the gaps.
Is one way better that the other?

Here are some pics from the weekend.

NHvette

My gussets were mostly overlapping by an inch or so - welded on both sides of the overlap.
One thing I realized a bit late was that I needed to bend up
custom tranny cooler lines for my TH400. They normally go
right where the gussets are placed. No biggy - with electric
fan, rerunning the cooler lines over the top of the front crossmember
is MUCH neater than between the lower control arm and the frame.

This post shows a lot more than I'd care to ... like my crappy welds:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=734245

However - near the bottom of the first posting are some
good pics of how I cut and attached the lower CA gussets.
Don't forget the front frame horn could use some boxing in - but
I havce also learned that this can (and did) interfere with
the drivers side radiator tank and more-so the lower radiator
outlet on the passenger side.

PS - I managed to cut all of my gussets from 1/8"x2" strip @ Home Depot.

Another shot from the bottom - all painted: