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sand blasting ain't cheap

15K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  powerrodsmike  
#1 ·
I can't believe it, I checked two local sand blast shops today to find out what they charge to SB my car hauling trailer....16 foot, no fenders and i would take the flooring boards off before i brought it in........$1000 to $1200 to sb top and bottom, then epox prime. I fliped out, I passed up a 1 year old trailer hardly used for $1400, and it was a nice heavy duty one.....Is it really that expensive all over? I will now rent a big blaster and do in myself, and probably take my toes off...... :pain:
 
#2 ·
that seems way over the top. i just had a corvette frame sandblasted (not primed) and it was $150. i had another pile of parts done recently, upper-lower control arms-rear suspension parts-brackets-front/rear springs-4 brake backing plates-bumper brackets-a bunch of misc. stuff...that was $75. i have a sandblaster but my guy is so reasonable it's easier for me to just have him do it. he has a gas powered compressor and like a 1000# pot and does it in no time. :thumbup:
 
#3 ·
Techron, are you having a guy with a real business do it for that price? The last time I priced a blast job it was going to be billed out T&M at 100.00 an hour at a truck frame repair shop with a huge sandblasting booth and giant blaster.


I borrowed my friends 90# tip blaster, bought 4 bags of black beauty and spent about 8 hours to do a through job on all of the suspension parts and frame and underside of the car on a 68 Imperial .

Another 2 hours was spent priming all of that stuff. At my shop rate that was 650, but it would have been 1000 at the truck shop, discounting for the better removal rates of the bigger blast equipment....and I could not have gotten the car over there easily at all.

Seems a little steep 1000.00 for a car trailer, but doing this as a business means trying to make every job profitable.

If you got 2 quotes within 200$, I would think that's the going rate in your area to have a shop do it..


Buy or borrow a blaster, do it yourself. :thumbup: Blasting yourself is not that bad, but don't breathe the paint fumes of that epoxy paint..


later, mikey
 
#4 ·
I got a quote about a year ago for a car frame ('78 Monte Carlo). $200-250 to blast and powder coat. So, IMO, either that is the only place in town (so that can charge what they want when they get the work), or they are just that dang good (highly unlikely unless they blast with a mix of sand and gold dust). Best shop someplace else.


In a while, Chet.
 
#5 ·
After you do it yourself you will understand why it is so expensive. As far as a real shop doing it for $200 to $250 you have to think of their overhead and most places could not work for much over an hour (T+M) for that kind of money, not if they plan on staying in business anyway. Heck the epoxy could cost nearly that much.
 
#7 ·
The problem with comparing prices like we are doing here is that there are widely differing definitions of "shops". When I ran my weld shop I ran into this all the time and my pricing was compared to my competition often. When I would quote a price sometimes (quite often really) I would be told "I can get that done for x-amount at x's place and you are way too high". Was I too high? Not compared to the other true professional shops in the area but our "competition" was a heck of a lot cheaper and sometimes a customer would leave thinking we were trying to cheat him. I, and the other pro shops, had a lot of overhead such as employee expenses, equipment costs, insurance fees, etc. Our "competition" usually was one or two guys with an old truck and welder whose only expenses were the immediate costs of fuel and material, they had no real shop, no employee expenses, no insurance, little in the way of equipment costs and usually did not even pay any taxes! Add this to the fact they usually made barely enough to pay what little expenses they incurred and it is easy to see why the prices are so far apart. I am not knocking these guys because some of them were hard working people trying to get started and mostly they did decent work but others were just "fly by night" and were not going anywhere. My point is don't knock a shop for their price by comparing it to someone else's price who simply may not play by the rules and who may or may not do a decent job for the price. If you want "backyard" pricing and are willing to chance the quality then fine but don't knock the true professional for trying to make a living, he is not trying to cheat you he simply wants to stay in business and it is not fair to compare him to someone else who is not running a real long-term business and who may be making little to nothing.
 
#8 ·
Do any of you guys have a local memorial business (headstones)? As small as our town is....we have 3 memorial business here locally that are doing odd (metal related) jobs all the time to suppliment their business. I had a cab a few years ago sand blasted inside and out.....they did a great job.....and was careful not to heat warp any large panel areas. I believe they charged me $100. Sound like the vehicle related shops are charging a premium because of what they do.

Dave
 
#9 ·
Techron,
"something" you need/want done is missing from your post info...
and/or....
those shops are telling you politely to "go away"....they don't want your business possibly due to a back log....

post a pic' of the trailer...

if you do it your self, 60 grit sand and "3M stripper wheel" what you can then sand blast the rest will likely make it a much quicker project...unless the paint is just falling off

ps: you "can" just brush and roller on the epoxy...use atleast 2 coats
 
#10 ·
Stovebolter said:
.and was careful not to heat warp any large panel areas.
Dave

This is a good example of what I was trying to point out, these guys may work a lot cheaper and very well may do a good job but they mostly blast stone and may do little metal work. Warpage is of no concern when blasting stone but If they told you they would be careful to not "heat" warp the metal then they could ruin your panels by by taking steps to keep the metal cool when the fact is heat has nothing to do with it! This myth has caused a lot of damage when someone takes steps to keep the metal "cool" when actually they should be worried about the peening effect of the sand on the metal which is the real culprit and a true body professional would be aware of this while a stone worker may not be. Sometimes you do get what you pay for.
 
#12 ·
That does seem high to me, they may have been busy, or just have a lot of overhead/too many paychecks to issues versus voume of work coming in.

This is why I suggest networking, or meeting people at local cruise ins and such. You can get the names of good shops and parts dealers, or swap services, or the best is help someone or have someone help you with a problem and show you how instead of doing it for you, all for a case of beer and a good time of bs'ing.

I've found this is a good way to find the little old men in the trucks with just a welder, that are excellent at what they do, and do it for cheap if for no other reason to escape the wife and boredom of retirement. (got a guy like that locally :thumbup: )
 
#13 ·
I will try Monday to find others near here, i think half the problem is they have a monopoly on it. I need more sb'ers out here. I rented one before, wasn't that bad, if i rent and do it myself it's still about $200, but except able.
 
#14 ·
Techron,
I did mean to address my post to awert....Duh!

(had the grandkids all day yesterday...still recovering!!!...but a total blast because The Sun n' Fun Flyin In is this week..)

awert,
commercial buildings painters...
industrial machinery re-builders....
car restorations shops...
powder coaters...
ship yards...
are all likely to have blasters
 
#15 ·
hey mikey, yeah my guy has a real business. he's in the yellow pages under "sandblasting". he does bridges/structures-etc. he knew i am a car tech and after doing my frame he asked if i could get his early 60s GMC sissors lift truck running-it was a peice of cake and i didn't even charge him.
after he did my other stuff he asked me to do a major tune/maintenance on his astrovan. after i did it he asked how much $ he owed me. i said if i was going to charge him it would be $500, (that thing was a pain in the butt to work on) but we could just trade for future sandblasting. now i get free sandblasting for life. his name is tom and he's a genuinely nice guy. :thumbup:
 
#16 ·
Professional consideration is an added value that regular, non commercial customers don't normally get.


I get help like that from a number of local businesses, and like you, respond in kind with discounts on my services to them....

Later, mikey