Media Blasting or Paint Stripping, What to do and What to look for? Options

[GWN7]

The red car (Nevada) needs the old paint (several layers) cleaned off before I start to do the conversion. It is stripped down now, no glass, wireing, interior, ect.

Which to use?

Paint stripper or Media Blasted

I know that paint stripper is messy and you have to neutralize it with water. Also it's hard to get out of the nooks and crannies of the car. But it doesn't distort any panels.

With media blasting, if not done right it can distort the metal. But it cleans the metal compleatly and no mess.

What to look for in a media shop?

Price?

Also I would like to remove the build date sticker and reinstall it after the car is painted. Any suggestions as how to do it?

[Lawrence]

Ginter will disagree with me... but I advocate stripping over media blasting. You never really get all the grit out.

Take some good masking tape and mask off the seams of your panels. (Do those manually.) Get some quality industrial strength stripper.

Take a sturdy, sharp, utility knife and scratch the surface of the paint HARD. Don't be shy - the body panels are sturdy. (Be sensible, though, don't go gorilla on the rear hood.)

Then, daub your stripper on. Cover with saran wrap to prevent it from drying out. The saran wrap will also force the stripper to work DOWN into the panel, rather than the fumes floating away.

Don't let the stuff dry out (i.e. overnight). Come back in a couple of hours, and scrape it away with a putty knife.

Rinse thoroughly with water, use something like Rust-Mort or another product that will stop flash-rust.

Work one panel at a time. This method removed the majority of 4 paint jobs. No, it wasn't perfect, but it got most of the crap off with a minimum of effort.

-Rusty

[vortrex]

I am with lawrence. use that aircraft stripper stuff and the paint bubbles up in 15 min. blasting leaves such an incredible mess. I would not blast unless the car was down to NOTHING and it was on a rotisserie so you can spin the media out. stripping also leaves the metal surface in better shape for painting (less prep sanding).

[Gint]

How timely.

Stripper sucks!

I just got home with my front hood, rear trunk lid and donor quarter panel from the blaster. They don't look any more warped than they were when they went into his shop. And the silicone between the stiffening ribs and the panels are gone. Pics later.

[McMark]

It's important to think about the media used in blasting. I've heard that plastic grit will allow you to take paint jobs down to the original primer. Sand is crazy abrasive which means heat and warpage and leaves a rough finish that you can't paint over. So don't use sand. Plastic is pretty expensive, but if you're looking for a thorough cleaning, I don't think you can beat blasting.

Speaking of the rotissery, anyone have plans they can scan and email me?

[GWN7]

I have a rottissery. Half finished one (my welder broke today). It can be taken apart and reassembled at the blasting place if they don't have one.

Those of you that have had stuff blasted, what did the shop use as a medium? And what questions should I ask them to determine if they are any good?

I'm thinking about paint stripper for the hoods.....blast the rest.

[Lawrence]

Ginter, we talked about this two days ago.

However, my experience with stripper was different.

It's easy to pull selected panels off for media blasting. But if it's an entire chassis, I'd go with stripper rather than dealing with media in the engine compartment, doors, center tunnel, suspension, under the dash, etc, etc, etc.... You never really get ALL of it out.

My opinion only,
Rusty

[Gint]

Ginter, we talked about this two days ago.

However, my experience with stripper was different.

Yup, we did indeed. And I still feel the same about stripper as I did before. My opinion might be colored by that one time the lid popped open and flew across the room, spalttering me with stripper on the arms, legs and yes, even my right eye. I don't like it.

To be fair, Rusty's method does indeed work. Bit I don't like it. I was only getting a few scattered patches of bare metal. After that it was more stripper, or sanding the leftover off. I'll take sanding dust over toxic stripper waste anyday. But that's just me. YMMV.

BRUCE!!

Seriously, do yourself a favor. Those 3M stripping disks I posted pics of in my "rusto" thread are fantastic! If you get the 7" one that Eastwood sells, you could easily strip a front hood to bare metal in under an hour. With a nice clean surface ready to work. Those things are amazing.

Pics in my "rusto" thread after I have dinner.

[Gint]

Those of you that have had stuff blasted, what did the shop use as a medium? And what questions should I ask them to determine if they are any good?

This guy I used dipped the parts (not the good really toxic kind that the EPA requires heavy duty equipment for), and then he "mineral blasted" the remaining crap off. I didn't ask what "mineral blasted" was. Judging from the walls and walls of pics of cars that had been through his shop and restored, and his gaurantee that he wouldn't warp the panels, I said go for it. I have heard of folks that had panels warped by blasting. Make sure the shop you use knows what they're doing. And experience is worth all the money.

You don't want to use sand that's for sure. I've heard that the latest preferred media for this type of work is soda. But I've also seen guys that know what they're doing use sand with good results. Just be careful.

[Doug Leggins]

How about dipping the entire chassis? Anyone have experience with this? Local strip shop quoted $900 but has never done a 914.

[tracks914]

I just did my whole car. (outer body panels only) I used a small hand held (speed pro blaster) and the 3m rolo disks on a pencil grinder for hard to reach places. The medium I used was flexo lite glass beads. Very little distortion but time consuming on the parts that had all 9 layers of paint. The thing with blasting is to not use too much pressure too course a medium (black beauty for eg.)and too much medium at the same time. It will heat up the metal as it pushes on it and that causes distortion.

I never tried stripping on a car but it works great on furniture. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[SirAndy]

i had my car sandblasted and it worked fine.
only real problem is getting all the sand out afterwards.
a rotisserie should help, but i just used a strong shop-vac.

areas to look out for:

• Heater-tunnels in the longs
• (hollow) wall between engine comp and rear trunk
• center tunnel
• floor-brackets in front of the seats
• area under the headlight buckets
• the 2 \"tunnels\" that run alongside the front fenders, under the gas-tank, they end inside the car (needed to cut them open to get the dirt out)

Andy

(IMG:http://www.sirandy.com/pix/914/2003.02.05/001.jpg)

[GWN7]

Andy- what did they charge you?

What did they blast it with?

Did they prime it afterwards?

Were going to have twins (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[seanery]

Even after all of Andy's hard work, I swear I still saw a bit of sand in his rear trunk!

Am I right, Andy?

[SirAndy]

Andy- what did they charge you?

i think it's $500-$600 bucks for a complete car.
the body-shop guy had it done (by someone else) for me.

What did they blast it with?

sand

Did they prime it afterwards?

the body shop did.

Were going to have twins (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

yes! that's pretty cool. is it guards red? looks a bit darker ...

Andy

[SirAndy]

Even after all of Andy's hard work, I swear I still saw a bit of sand in his rear trunk!

Am I right, Andy?

you are right. but that can be avoided.
as said earlier, i had the body-shop guy drop the car off at the blasting place. so, i didn't have a chance to clean the sand BEFORE they painted the car. they did clean it out, but not the areas mentioned above. when we picked up the car from the body-shop, it looked great (no sand in sight). we then trailered the car back to SSI. and that's when all the sand got sucked out of the holes. the whole car was covered in sand when we got here.
kinda sucks.
alotta cleaning. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

soooo, if you clean the sand BEFORE you do the paint, you should be much better off (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (unless you really like that cleaning thing)

Andy

[GWN7]

I'm not sure what colour it is. PO didn't know, he got the car that way. It was to be a project for him and his son and I'm not sure who ran out of interest first.

Thanks for everyones input.

My ex bro-in-law (owns a body shop) suggested feathering the edges (where the paint layers show, lifting) and only spot blasting areas that are suspect or really needs it.

My son wanted it to match his car (white), but I think it should stay red. I like how Andys car looks and if the boy wants a V8 car to match his 1.7L, he can build his own. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[GWN7]

So the boy and I go out to visit my sister and bro-in-law tonight and the bro-in-law has to show me his new toy (both Dr.'s). A 100 gal tank, huge compressor (can't remember the CFM) with a 10 hp motor and a semi pro media blaster. He also bought 50 bags of sand with beads mixed in. Guess I don't have to worry about the cost of getting the car done now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[ChrisFoley]

How about dipping the entire chassis? Anyone have experience with this? Local strip shop quoted $900 but has never done a 914.

Dipping is great for a race car project, but it dissolves the heater tubes inside the longitudinals. This leaves a pile of fiberglass and foil instead. The fiberglass also retains some of the acid and continues to slowly dissolve the metal. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[rhodyguy]

plastic tops off of spray paint cans fit the heater tubes at the lower firewall nicely. just seal them w/masking tape. for the blast residue. shove a small shpvac hose up the tube, way up there. with the vac running take the spray nozzle on your comp and back blow the vents and heater openings. operate the vent controls while you're doing it. nothing nicer than getting you car running, opening up the heater lever, and having the crap blow all over your interior, your face, and if the top is off a fine dusting in the garage.

kevin