I read these articles and just wonder what is it really worth to get some
things
done in our car hobby. At least the professionals try to protect themselves
from
harms way with some type of body covering and facial gear, but not always.
The vinegar/ acid conversation is an excellent example of mind over matter
when it comes down to getting the job done. This shows me how important it
is to ask, ask, ask, as many questions as it takes to get a job done
with as little bodily harm done as possible. The days of painting without
protection and reasonable air ventilation and using harmful chemicals just to
clean up the rust bug are over. Not to mention where the chemical residue
or
"run off" from these chemicals are going. When you rinse phosphate off with
water to get to the treated metal, where's the water going, into a pail or
down the driveway into the street? And for what its worth, vinegar does work
too.
I caught myself in a harmful situation when I was redoing my Healey, but at
the
time I thought it was the way to go. Just because I saw someone else with
their
sandblaster hooked up to a "shop vac" to catch the contaminated air I thought
it was the correct way of doing things. After about a month or so I noticed
that there was a layer of dust accumulating over everything in the garage and
started
to realize how wrong this process was. Purchasing and using the correct type
of
sandblasting vac is the only way to go. Thankfully I always used a 2 filter
face
mask for myself, but I won't know what damage I caused for quite awhile. And
it took a long
time to get my brand new "man cave" cleaned up. "If only I knew then what I
know now" . I really should have asked more questions, but I chose to take
the cheap way out. Not a good solution.
Perhaps some of you that just joined our small Healey community and never
heard from the gentlemen that have "past on" but were able to reminisce with
us before their passing. They had big regrets with some of their automotive
choices that they had taken and that is why they were in the situation they
were in. It was lack of safety information and lack of initiative to "be
safe", back in the old days of the auto hobby that got them into trouble.
My point here gentlemen is not to discourage but to encourage everybody to
take the correct paths in getting the hobby procedures done with as little
harm
to ourselves and others as possible. Whats the point if we're not around at
the
end to enjoy our works of art.
Hope to meet up with all of you some time down the Healey roads.
God, please let there be sun today.
Mark
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