Sandblasting is NOT that easy.

So let me pre-face this by saying I forgot to take pictures of before and after, but I will make another post with the finished product.

For the past week and a half (leaning a bit towards 2 weeks), Jarrett, Nicole, and I have been sandblasting the convertible top to the Volkswagen beetle. One of the biggest challenges we faced was that we didn't quite have enough visibility when sandblasting, dust would be so dense that it was pretty hard to differentiate between the bare metal gray finish and any rust/paint. There were open spots in the seals, causing multiple leaks while blasting, which at first was a problem because inhaling the dust just makes it very uncomfortable. Mr.Gamarra tried resealing it himself but that didn't work, so we wore the proper air respirators, but we were causing too much dust that it affected everyone else in the shop. So Mr.Gamarra was able to get in contact with the company that sent us the sandblaster and informed us that the vacuum in it wasn't strong enough to clear the dust created from the 2 sandblaster attatchments being used simultaneously. For the past 2 days we had one attachment in use the whole time and just rotate between technicians (Jarrett, Nicole, and I) so we all were able to blast everything accurately. For me personally it's a lot like painting, where your eyes gets accustomed to the application of the base coat (seeing the bare metal) and you can't exactly tell what the dried color looks like (trying to see the unblasted parts through the dust cloud.)

That's it for now, if there are any mistakes please point them out and I will make the appropriate edits. I hope you enjoyed reading and have a nice day.

A Day With My Babies.

Today was a good day to wash all the cars in my driveway, and my dad always says "If you take care of your things, your things will take care of you" so I kind of went the extra mile. I want to take a moment to focus on the wheels, which I used Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and Armor All Tire Shine after I cleaned with regular car wash n wax soap. I took a few sort-of-before and after pictures of 2 wheels. I say sort of because I didn't think to take pictures until after I washed them, so the before picture of the Audi wheel is after I cleaned it, but before I buffed out the polish, however the set of pictures with the mini Cooper wheel is the complete before and after. Enjoy!

All 5 cars washed, waxed, tires shines, and vacuumed! (Mini-cooper not included in this picture.)

Cleaning the beetle chassis

So the chassis of the beetle needed a much needed cleaning which Kelvin, Fred, Devin, and  I did. We just double checked to make sure there was no way for water to get into the engine and washed away!! We also made sure to not get all of the tar off, and did our best to get the underside but we will flip the chasis on it's side if needed.

Taking the vinyl seat covers off the ford seats

The vinyl seat covers on the ford needed to get removed so Mike, Jarrett, Nicole, Fred, and I (with the help of Mr.G, Roberto, and Javi) took them. The process was a bit tricky if it was your first time, but adapt and overcome, and you'll be fine. So first and foremost, you need to take the seats out. For us, the back seats were already taken out, but the front seats were attached with 12x 1/2" bolts to the underbody. The bolts are covered with plastic covers, and to take them out you need wedge them out using flathead screwdrivers. If you want to, you can either take the seatbelts out by unscrewing the 2x 3/4" screws and pulling them out from the seat. The vinyls are head down by bull rings, which you can take out by using needle-nose pliers. You would wedge the pliers under the bull ring, clamp it, pull and twist and they should come out.

Working on the Outer CV Joint, Front Driver's Side, 1999 Audi S6 Avant

So today me and Kelvin started the rebuild of the front driver side axle in Mr.Gamarra's 1999 Audi S6 Avant. What we were able to do was open the outer CV-joint by taking off 2 rings that kept it on the axle, using a flathead screwdriver to pry it off. After that we had to research the next steps, which were to put the axle on a vice grip and use use a steak (basically a metal wedge) and hammer on the inner ball race to knock the CV-joint off a round clip on the axle and fully pull it off. 

Before:

After:

Remember that this is packed with axle grease, so safety gloves are a must! We used rags to clean as much grease as we could until we could see what was inside. Inside the joint was a ball cage, 6 ball bearings and another peice, the name of which I forgot and will be editted in as soon as I know. We marked an arbitrary position '1' with black marker so we could remember the positioning of the ball bearings inside the inner ball race. We put the 6 ball bearings inside 6 respectively labelled cups (going clockwise from our marked 1 positioning.) Then we used zip ties to mark which side faces up on the ball cage and the number one position marked previously not only to indicate the side facing up position, but as a back up mark for our '1' position, since we would be cleaning these parts in the parts washer. For those of you that don't know, parts washer fluid washes away permanent marker.

A Day in the Life of a Newbie.

Today we (Kelvin, Mike, and me) prepped an area in the wheel well for welding. It's the place where the brake line from the reservoir connects with the brake line to the caliper. Basically it was a hole in the engine bay that was cracked from wear and possibly hard braking. Fixing it was simple, we cleaned the area with a wire-wheel and MIG( metal inert gas) -welded the crack in.

Suspension Swap

Today we swapped the shock absorbers on the ford country sedan. The rusty old ones were a pain to take off but after all the hard work, skin, and tears (also one glove) we finally got it off.

About Me

Hello, my name is Andrew Mavros, aged at 17, born and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey. I'm a senior at High Tech High School in North Bergen, New Jersey. I plan on studying criminal justice in college and working on cars is my favorite hobby, because of my major (automotive technology) I know how to do oil changes, tire rotation, brake bleeding, and suspension swaps. I love working with my hands and I just can't live without them. I like the '69 VW Beetle because it's old technology yet new to me, so it provides me a wealth of information.