I was wondering peoples thoughts and experiences with stripping down vehicles. I have a heavily pitted truck cab and need to get it stripped clean. The sandblaster I deal with said it would be 4-500 bucks to get the thing clean. I am just worried with the extensive amount of blasting on the thing how badly it may warp. I have never delt with dipping car parts and am not even sure that it would work with a lot of metal pitting, but am just exploring the options. Any other options available or opinions out there? Thanks!
I made the dreadful mistake of dipping a 914-6 Porsche back in the 90's. Damn thing continued to oooze crud from the seams no matter how many time we flushed the cavities out
Ask your blast guy if he can use a gentler media. You might also look into Soda Blasting if you have a guy near you who does it. It's much milder than sand, but I'm not sure it will clean your project up as good as sand if it's real rusty. Here my local guy's website: www.tidewatersodablasting.com
Your blaster needs to use a gentle media with a lower pressure to keep from warping the sheetmetal. Ask him how much experience he has with antique sheetmetal or ask for a reference. The media used still needs to be a sand like material as plastic beads, walnut shells, and soda blasting will remove paint fine but will not remove rust. The price he gave you is typical for a rusty truck cab. If you have any specific questions about media blasting feel free to pm me.
I didnt think that media would be aggresive enough to remove the heavy rust and pitting that this cab has.
Soda blast is a no no. It will leave a residue that will come back & haunt you. Starblast will do what you want, use it at about 45 psi to avoid warpage. At the lower pressure you will spend a little more time, however, the rust will leave and the panel will be smooth
I my self am a big fan of soda blasting .I have had frames tanks and sheet metal done .Just make sure you wipe down the metal with thinner before paint .Soda blasting leaves a coating on it to prevent rust while your working in it.
time is money....you can pay a lot for someone else's time, or you could spend the money on equipment and use your own time to do the job. With a smaller compressor and a small pressure blaster, you can blast the cab yourself and see why it is that he wants to charge $500 to do it! it's nasty dangerous work and not something you should be doing at most residences, though. I blast my own stuff, never had any trouble with warping, but I use a rather small blaster with an old 5 hp 2 stage compressor, which is quite a bit less than the pros have. I live out in the country too. And the blaster I use is actually my neighbor's, so I don't have an issue there, some neighbors might not be so nice about it.
you may want to check out this website http://www.safestrustremover.com/ the stuff actually works just like they say
Holy COW! Just watched the slide show on that stuff. It really does work? Did you have personal experience with it. Please tell me more. I am very intrigued and thinking it might be a good solution for the Impala. How expensive was it?
There is also Electrical Rust Removal as well. You Positively charge the metal and then reverse the charge and it blasts the oxidised rust of without effecting the good metal. It is usually but into a baking soda like solution. Here is an article about it. http://www.streetmachineclub.com/document.asp?dID=9196
I have used it to remove rust from parts and I cleaned out the water jacket on my hudson with it. It works great. The hudson was plugged up realy bad, almost no flow from the head to the block. I bypassed the radiator, filled it with the juice,, ran it until operating temp was reached, shut it down and let it sit, repeated 3x in 24 hours and drained. It went in looking like piss and came out very dark and full of small pieces of crud. the inside of the water jacket looked great and more importantly flowed 100% . Never had another issue with cooling. here is a pic of the waterjacket through the t-stat hole after treating it with the "magic juice" if I recall correctly it cost $90-100 for 5 gallons
my buddy just did some 56 f100 doors with starblast and the metal came amazing. Id suggest starbalst over soad blasting. I sodablasted a 69 mustang and like said above, that crap oozes forever. Even after paitning.
I ordered a gallon of the safe rust remover, used it on a rusted rotary engine rotor, came out clean and rust free. I am going to order some more and use it in my other parts washer
I had the truck I am working on now blasted and the people who did it for me used a plastic media. It worked great and did not damage the body at all and was easy to cleanup. Do some calling to local blasting shops and aske some questions. You will be surprised at what is effective. Angela
I've used chemical dipping on several projects now and wouldn't do it any other way. I use a place in Jackson Mississippi called Metal Finishing Services. When they get done all that's left is clean steel. No rust, nothing but bare metal. I literally take the stuff straight in the paint booth when I get it back and start priming. Blasting is OK, but you still have a lot of clean up to do before you can start priming. You can see some examples of it on my web site, www.kustomsroyale.com Go to the showcase and look at "The Grinch" and Randy's Rivi and you'll see the bodies before and after they've been dipped. Also, the Project 61 is currently in Jackson and should be back and in primer some time next week. I'll post pics on my site as soon as it's done. Robt
I have some idea's being in both restoration and collision so If this information can help any of you, here it is. It all depends on what you want to beleave. Here are two of the most comon arguements in dipping and blasting. blasting generates friction which in turn produces heat. we all know excesive heat will warp the sheet metal. I prefer glass beeds over sand. I have also used crushed walnut shells which is agressive enogh for rust but gentle enogh not to warp. #1 bonus is you can do it yourself (if you have the room for it). I rent industral blasters and compressors used on buildings and use glass or walnut. #2 bonus is that you only strip the surface., or what you blast. IE... your cavities are fine. #1 pitfall It gets everywhere. (and I mean everywhere) In the jambs, the cavities your and the cars down your ass crack, your ears even under you toe nails. In turn you have to blow the car out real good and when your done. blow it out again. YOU WILL HAVE TO SHOOT IT IN A SELF ETCHING PRIMER THEN SEALER AND I HIGHLY RECOMEND DP40.(dupont) it can sit for a long time and will never rust. dipping or hot tanked is great for some reasons as well. #1 bonus.There is no warping what so ever. #2 bonus you dont have to do it. or you cant do it. you will have to pay to have it done. but you get a finshed product. sealed and ready to go. Pitfall on this and its a big one. I have seen it happen and its no bullshit. When the car is removed from the tank and washed out. the shit is still in the cavities and now its going to rust even worse... from the inside out because the stripping agent has now removed your paint.. and its hard to repaint the inside of these cavities. Now sure you can spray wax down inside these cavities but thats only a band-aid not a solution. Pitfall#3 somtimes the stripping agent is still in these cavities and comes back to reak havick on you new paint job. I HAVE SEEN IT HAPPEN FIRST HAND TO A CUSTOMERS 20,000 PAINT JOB. serously washing this shit out is like trying to catch smoke. I also highly recomend a corrosion protection. like the 3-M cavity wax. I like to take the pessure pod wand (if you dont have one ask you local autobody supplier for gun and wand. It will work just fine) first I use a rust-mort let it dry for a day then I use self etching primer then paint. somthing like benjemin moor industral paint its cheap (you can get it in limited colors.)this is done when you get it back from being stripped regardless of what method you choose. Then when the car is done and before assembly. you wax the living shit out of it. If someone else is doing the work dont just ask about these proceedures insist on them!! These are our cars guys, They are a part of us. What they represent is priceless. They represent the sacrifices you have made because you wont just settle for less. Its the countless hours spent away from your familys wrenching in the garage or searching for that one needed part. Its all about that feeling you get when it fires up for the first time or the looks you get when you ripp down the street. Be it traditional, street rods, sleds or muscle cars we are a rare breed people.others think we nuts. WE think they'er nuts. As long as we understand one another, It's all good. So if any of this info I have provided can help save just one of you guys and your cars from a total disaster then my job is done.
I have a set of doors I would like to have chemically stripped. They are pretty thin and are rusty on the inside so I don't think blasting is a good idea. Does anyone have a ballpark figure on the cost of chemically stripping 4 car doors? Also, since I'm only doing doors and not a whole car, does that reduce my chance of having chemicals trapped inside? I would think it'd be easy enough to clean out a set of doors, not really any trapped areas inside of doors. Opinions? This is a great thread full of useful info. I've done lots of sandblasting and it's cat's ass for heavy stuff like suspension parts and frames but it can be really hard on sheetmetal so I'd like to try the chemical stripping method.
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