body work advice?

[morisan]

I have a 74 Westy that needs some body work and paint in the furture to look good again. My question is what is the best way to get the body down to metal in order to see what I have to deal with? Media blasting would be an option, based on price and accessibility. I am in Calgary. I saw the pics of Chris' double and what he did. That sounds great, but how much is that going to set me back?

As for body panel replacement, what is the recommended source for good panels? CIP has them on their website, but I don't know how good they are thickness wise. Anyone with experience with those? Most of the damage is in the rear.

What about recommended welders? I will most likely be tackling this job myself to keep costs down and to gain experience. I am going to look around for an air compressor...20 gal seems to be ok for air tools...any advice?

[lomah]

Since no one else replied...

$1000 minimum to media blast your bus. The best panels are from Klassicfab but I'm not sure if he does Bay stuff. Next is of course what's available (orange over black). Your basic 110V Lincoln from Canadian Tire should be good enough for most of your welding needs. Buy the hugest, biggest, baddest compressor you can afford. Then borrow some money and buy a bigger one.

[karmann57]

For body panels check with Concept 1 as they can get Klokkerholm for pretty much the same price as the CIP1 stuff but it's supposed to be better quality.

When I was looking for a compressor every suggestion I read sounds exactly like lomah's advice, go as big as you can. I don't plan on doing this for a living but I picked up a 50 Gallon Coleman from Canadian Tire, after having it for what I'm sure is close to a year I'm finally getting ready to hook it up in the next week or so, can't wait.


Shane