After pulling a 60-something hour Monday, I took Wednesday off and got the "Cougar Valve" for my sandblaster. $186 all told, once you get the ceramic tip, hoze, etc. Oye! Turns out it was well worth it. The sandblaster does not clog up anymore. It "clogged" twice in 5 hours of working today: they first time was a huge grain of sand in the ceramic tip, and the second was probably a moisture problem (it _was_ humid) - I laid the unit on its side and it started working again! Total down time: less than 5 minutes between the two incidents. I got quite a bit of the driver's (RHD remember) side done. I will be saving the 3 I-beams and cutting out the rest, so I cleaned them real well and just got the rest so-so. This nozzle was also worth it because it cuts a wider swath than the other one did. Areas like the reduction boxes and lever shocks cleaned the fastest. Some areas are undercoated heavily, and it takes a while to get all that stuff off. I hit most of the general areas all along the side, the wheel wells, the floor, the axle tube and reduction box, brake lines, cargo floor, front beam, etc. The bus looks 150% better in the spots I did get. I figure another 4 hours to really clean it up. I plan to remove some scraps of vestigial metal first, to kinda pave the way. Thom Fitzpatrick thom@calweb.com - http://www.calweb.com/~thom Keeper of the Barndoor Bus Web Page: http://www.calweb.com/~thom/barndoor.html
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