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!

Seems that blasting would be the quickest and easiest way to strip it down and let you know what you're starting with. However, getting all the blasting material out of all the nooks and crannies can be a pain.

You might want to go and talk to the folks at Patrick Motorsports since you are in the Phoenix area. I think they've done a fair amount of 914 work and may give you some ideas.

I had mine soda blasted, did a good job of taking off all the layers of paint, and left the body panels smooth and ready for finishing work. cost about $1000 though, but no danger of panel warpage, or adding a texture to the metal. and teh residues washes away

My /6 tub was dipped. The tub was painted and it's been sitting for 5 years since. No issues whatsoever from leftover acid/chem/whatever it was as most people fear. Worked for me...

5 years? you need to get working on that!!:)

I'd say it depends on your budget.

Dipping is the way go. I believe its the most expensive.
Its seems we're a little behind Europe in that regards. They have some new kind of elecroxxxxx process that is a rust prevention of some sort that is applied after its dipped and rinsed.
But looking at the pictures I saw you'd have to be a Gillionaire to get that to fly past the EPA.

So for most of us. Soda blasting is probably the best method. I think you'll be somewhere between $900 and $1200 depending your market.

Many of the blasters down South provide an option for spraying on Metal Ready or similar. Problem is, that if they don't have access to the inner longs, etc., it's not addressing where the worst culprits lie.

I would opt for that if an option though...

The dude in Italy had his car put in a kiln/oven and had the paint removed that way. Looked pretty good in the pictures.

Whatever you do, don't have it sandblasted. I made that mistake once.


Soda-blasting seems to be the least expensive of the good options. However, i don't think it will remove seam sealer or undercoating.


PS: If you have it acid dipped, you need to open the longs and remove the heater mufflers first. They will otherwise be destroyed by the acid.

Not really... don't you remember that it took two days to clean up the acid in the seams? They were all rusting as the chassis continued to weep.

Soda blasted mine after I saw that. No regrets.

That's why I paid the big money having it finished when it was found and dealt with. Love Troy! No further evidence of anything like that after 5 years.

Has anybody had experence with Dry Ice ? I here it,s pretty good and no media left to clean up. I did 1 with sand, never again . it took 5 yrs. before there wasn"t some in the trunks all the time. Dave

Just had mine fine-grit glass-beaded ($800). Great results externally. Many layers of paint to go through.

I didn't do a rotisserie blast and had to mask off the interior/engine compartment/front-trunk, so I still have lots of dust to vacuum up after drives. Eventually It'll settle down I suppose.

I'd do it again with more attention to masking-detail. I think dry ice is the ticket but I didn't know about that one... dangit!

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

Ah jeez . . . he's talking aboot his car, Scotty . . .

Thats funny!

Thanks to all! I think I am going to go with Soda. Thinking about doing my self. Think I will rent a BIG compressor and have at it? Have the space at my shop,but we will see.

So,now its blasted,I was thinking that a weldable primer mite be best? Ideas?

Spies Hecker and PPG both make a weld through etching primer. I don't use anything else. I've tried Bloxide too. It works, but makes a lot of spatter.

I am pretty sure Scotty B will stripping my Six in the next couple of weeks with this new system he has. We will all get to see it as it progresses. I can't wait.

Another new method is wet sand blasting. Its done by suction and a steam cleaner.
I'm heading out to the steam cleaner sales place on Monday to pickup some detergent for my parts washer. I'll have the guy walk me thru it.

I don't think it will work for us. 18 gauge just isn't thick enough. But I'll listen to the sales pitch. Might be useful in some applications.

I saw that at SEMA. You must have a rust agent to mix otherwise it will flash rust before your eyes. Looked pretty cool though.

OK,so I went to HF and R2 came home with me! Then went to the eastwood site and looked at their soda swap kit. Then went and got the parts and built the changover kti.( cheep ass!) 100 Lbs. later this is what I have. Took about 2 hours+-.









Not sure if this is good or bad? No rust under the paint?





The soda is very easy to work with! Lots of mess but that is ok. Need to try and reclame some of the soda.With this tool I will be able to go at my pase. I didn't strip all the fender because I am installing the GT flairs. Who makes them at a fair price?





Something funny. The front coner that was repaired/replaced was the same color as the car!

Looks nice. Good work ....................

My experience: 1) had the LE blasted with Sand & plastic. Mostly sand since there was considerable rust from the remains of fire & the water necessary to put it out. A lot of vacuuming to extricate the grit from all the small orifices but not too bad.
2) had my proj. car soda blasted. My 1st experience ..the good - remarkable fast stripping leaves a residue that unless expressly washed off & neutralized protects the bare metal . Its been a yr since sitting in my garage and barely a trace of flash rust. The bad - Too smooth finish. leaves no tooth to the metal so you must DA or scotch pad entire car before prime. Also as has been mentioned must address areas that have been bondoed rusted or have sealer which it doesnt remove.

Have you used etching primer?

How is the dustless blasting system working out for you? All video I have seen was blasting the outside of a car. How is it for the inside? Are you having a problem cleaning out the slurry on the inside of the car? How about the inside of the doors? No problem with flash rust?

If you have all the bolts out of the car and it is on a rotisserie, then you really should get inside the longs (cut them open) and also take off the floor pans (lots of rust on the seams). You came this far....might as well go the extra steps.

Really??…take off the floorpans? That is a BIG job especially if you're not a pro - removing them really carefully so they can go back on 'easily' and neatly. Sure, replace them if they are shot, but surely not necessary if they're in 'good' shape?

There's probably going to be varying degrees of rust in every little seam but you can't take the entire car apart...

I think this is the system that Scotty has.
http://www.dustlessblasting.com/automotive_videos.html

I'm saving up my lunch money .............Starts at about $5k without buying a new compressor. So not for the cheap SOB 914 DIY types.

I've actually given some thought to doing it for a living.
Cars for fun and to help folks. Graffiti removal to pay the bills.

Talk to scotty before you purchase. You need a big compressor.

I know. That's another $3-$4k. So not for the faint of heart or wallet.

To do it for a leaving. Big trailer, onboard compressor, $50-$60k. Without the pickup.

Yes you need a large diesel 185 CFM unit to run this system. I wasn't happy about that at all. I talked to the builders before buying, gave them the specs on my shop compressor( 10 horse 2 stage 180 gallon tank ) and was told it would have no problem running it. .......yeah for about 15 minutes. It just couldn't keep up with what the blaster needs. A screw compressor MAY be able to keep it going.

As for my long term experiences, yeah, it is wonderful on the exterior, and if that was all you had to do I could see a 914 taking an hour or so if the bondo isn't too thick. Interior, engine bay is another issues. I've done Cairo's car, a model A sedan, and a 40 Ford inside and out so far and the slurry gets packed...PACKED into every little corner. PACKED And inside and out took anywhere from a day to 2 days depending on that car. Once you get into complex areas it gets slow going. You have a hard time seeing between the media in the air, and the slurry sticking to the surface. h and did I mention it gets PACKED into every nook and cranny ? With the HOLDTITE mixed in and low humidity weather you have enough time to get the job done the clean it out. I have had issues with flash rust even using the holdtite, but those seem to have been mid summer when the heat was high and the humidity was as well. I suspect the parts dried before the holdtite had time to do it's job.

Every method has it's drawbacks and this one is no different.