I had the Vicky blasted this weekend using a "dustless" blasting process that uses water and gl*** bead media. It came out looking great! There was almost no filler on the entire car, just a skim coat on the driver side panels. The driver rear quarter had been replaced some time long ago, so I wasn't surprised by that. I was surprised to find the seam between the deck lid and the rear window had been leaded. The only bad surprise was some rust on the tail pan below the driver side tail light. About 8" will have to be cut out. Not bad for a 60 year old car. Overall I am very happy with the outcome and highly recommend it if you can afford it. In 5 hours they were able to do what would have taken me a month or more.
Interesting you posted this,last Saturday on MAVTV the show "My Cl***ic Car" featured this in the Auto Geek Garage here is a link to the video: http://www.mycl***iccar.com/episode/18/06/ Looking for a new job and being your own boss?
I'm sold! If you don't mind me asking, how much did this cost you? Since it uses water, did you have any issues with flash?
There's no flash because there is a rust inhibitor mixed in with water and gl*** media. It says it's good for 72 hours, but here in Nevada all of my parts have been sitting for a week without flashing. The stuff he used is called Hold Blast. It cost me a grand and pizza for lunch I think that's pretty good, considering some people have payed that much just for a '32 body to be blasted. I had all of the front sheet metal and the body done.
A grand? That's not bad at all!! I'm impressed with how fast the process is, it sure beats having it sit at the blasters for a week or more. Thanks for sharing!
I have the number of a local guy that does the same thing. I'd be willing to give him $200 to have the front of my frame blasted so I can paint it.
It took about an hour and a half to do all of the body. That included having him go back and make another p*** over a couple areas. He also did the door jambs. It took him another two and a half hours to do all of the front sheet metal.
That's why there's a blue tarp over the front of the frame. I had already cleaned, blasted, and painted all of that.
I have heard horror stories about traditional sandblasting of sheet metal and warpage... is that due to the heat though? This looks like it would not generate of course because of the cooling of the water right? Any concern over warped panels in this process?
Nope, no warpage. I was a little concerned about the hood and the roof, but it didn't warp them at all. This guy did some small test patches on the door and the roof before he went all out. I forgot to ask him why, but I ***ume it was to test this. There's a lot of argument in the main boards about traditional blasting and warpage. Some say it's not heat that warps the panels it's pressure and not having the machine dialed in to work with old sheet metal.
This type of media blasting is a lot less destructive than sand blasting for example. Plus these cars have a lot thicker metal on them. My '59 is built like a tank. I'm going to call the guy sometime this week, got lots of things going on right now.
This seems like the perfect thing for me when I get to that stage. Hopefully I can get to this stage by the next summer.