To blast or not to blast?, Striping chassis for repair. Options

[914GTSTI]

Who has stripped their chassie and had it blasted? The good and the bad. And what did you do to the metal after it was striped? My car will be on a rotisserie for the stripping.
Thanks!

[scotty b]

Dipping = I have no personal experience so I wont comment

Soda = does a good job on paint but does nothing to the rust, bondo, lead etc. Leaves a residue that must be dealt with properly. This has become less of an issue in the last few years. The guy that comes to you ( how I had it done ) Isn't cheap, but neither is his setup. We had a Healy done, exterior only, and he charged us 1800.00

"sand" = It does a great job when the user knows what the hell he is doing. If he doesnt he can severly damage the car.Makes a big mess,it does leave ALOT of grit that will be coming out for years, and for me the finish is a bit rougher then I like, but it gets it all off. Would take me the better part of a day to do a small car, goes through a lot of sand

dry ice = I have no idea

dustless blasting = this is the system I now have after getting tired of the results with " sand " this setup uses a slurry of water and crushed glass ( recycled bottles ). There is no dust created so it takes minimal room. WILL NOT damage the metal. I have held this thing wide open 2" off of a decklid and couldn't warp it. The water washes MOST of the media off as you are blasting. It uses a chemical called HOLD TITE that is well known in the marine industry to prevent flash rust for up to 72 hours. Works quicker than my old pressure pot using sand, does a great job on paint, rust, bondo slows it down a little but it still does a good job on it. The setup is expensive,it requires a seperate tow behind compressor, if it sits more than 72 hours without being primed it definitely will need some touch up as the flash rust comes on quickly. The slurry does get packed into corners and crevices and doesn't rinse out all that easily. Goes through a fair amount of media

sanding = takes forever, makes a HUGE mess,2nd cheapest of all options if you do it yourself

torch and scraper = quiet, cheap, clean. Takes a long time, doesn't get into tight spots very well. Easy to warp the metal if you're not careful

chemical strip = caustic, messy, not cheap when you add up all the cans you will go through, PITA to neutralize and clean up after, doesnt get the tight spots well


They all have their ups and downs. IMHO...Go for what you can afford, just make sure the stripper knows what they are doing

[MDG]

IMHO...Go for what you can afford, just make sure the stripper knows what they are doing

Ah jeez . . . he's talking aboot his car, Scotty . . . (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)