I'm currently at the point of cleaning the frame and underbody and have been testing cleaning and stripping methods for the underbody and frame the last few days and at this point iam in need of some advice...

I picked up a media blasting gun and a 50lb bag of walnut shells that are somewhat corse as well as a 50 lb canister of alum media that's really fine. It seems the walnut shells are best for the undercoat that is still on the truck and frame... And the alum fine stuff is good on surface rust and paint.

However my compressor which isn't small (but only a single stage) is having a hell of a time keeping up and I'm concered with how much blasting material i will have to use to get the whole frame and underbody finished. I'm out of walnut material and I don't even have one front fender done... I startd using the alum stuff but man it's making a giant mess of the garage and the results are not very impressive.

I'm now re-thinking my plan of attack and mulling over putting the axles back on the truck along with the 1" body lift , call a flat bed and having someone blast it.

I have run the numbers and if I continue to blast the underbody and frame with walnut shells I will need about 8 or 10 fifty lb bags of shells. They are about $40 a piece so almost $400 for me to bust my ass every night for a week to get it even close to being done.. not counting the time for clean up.. and other little stuff that seems to pop up.

What do you guys think? to me its a no brainer.. take the truck in.. get it done and get it back so i can start sealing the underbody and frame...

would I be able to take the truck in with just the axles in? would they be able to blast the frame and underbody with the body on it? would the paint on the truck suffer?

My plan was not to have the entire truck repainted this year.. really dont want to speed the cash right now for body work and a paint job...

what do you guys think? Sorry for the .. just a little frustrated.. spent the last few days aquiring filters and hose and some other stuff to keep the water out of the lines... now iam rethinking my whole approach.. iam probably $200 in for the gun, media and odds and ends so kind of at a crossroads...

I got my rolling chassis sandblasted @ DTI Trucks for 250 and they did a good job and it only took a couple of hours. If you want to go this route get a hold of Paul.

The challenge for you is wanting someone to do the underbody without damaging the paint job.

I wouldn't trust this aspect to DTI as it would take some real finesse and I am not sure they would meet your expectations. When they did mine I towed it to them with a borrowed car dolly....................wait for it.....................they didn't bother to take the chassis off of the dolly so it ended up partially sandblasted and now I have to paint it for my buddy.

I think you would have much better luck having Blastech do the underbody but they are very expensive.

Ya thats what Iam worried about - controlling hte amount of blasting under the body..

I talked to blastech a few weeks ago and they said $500 - $550 to do the entire tub and top... i would imagine it would be $300 or so for the frame and underbody.. but again i dont think the paint will survive... well i may have to man up and just find more walnut shells and keep blasting.. its not near as messy as this other stuff and seems to work real well on the tough old under coating that is on there.

Just pick up the walnut shells after you're done and use em again!