Wondering if anyone has had their car done by the Dustless Blasting guys? I'm in eastern Pennsylvania and looking for feedback and possibly some one local to me that does it around me. I'm 20 miles north of Allentown. Thanks for any info.
I have not but a friend did and said never again.of course it was done at his home so the sludge was there also. If I remember correctly he was not happy with the sludge that remained the car also.
I know a builder who said the same thing. He stated that the sludge was almost impossible to remove from the cavities which it had settled in. He also said never again.
I have heard similar. There are tales of woe for every process to strip a car. Depending on the value of the stuff, I'd suggest getting a junk fender or trunk lid and having it done as proof of concept. I'd cry a lot less if I blew a hundred bucks on scrap than if they ruined a Zephyr, for instance.
A good blaster would flush all the sludge out then follow up with a good air dry then clean the yard up but for every good guy there is a hand full of bad ones.
I just got a quote from a guy here in Washington to blast a 56 F100 I am taking on. I need all the paint off the exterior and under-hood areas. I got a quote for $1500 at my house. 5 hours work. He said he takes care of the clean up when done. Seems tempting.
I've personally worked on a unibody car that was dry blasted and blown out MANY times. I have also followed a youtuber who has been cleaning a car that had wet sand invade the car. P1 if you know what I mean. Good luck on getting it all out of every nook and cranny.
Thanks for all the responses! Thinking I'll be doing it myself. Sure appreciate you all taking the time to respond.
any pressurized blasting will send particles where the Sun don't shine. hand sanding leaves less to come back and bite you later. but, all situations are different.
The best place to find the perfect stripper is on a pole at...no, never mind, senior moment, brain wander, cars and pu...shit there I go again
Well known builder Scott Sullivan had it done on a 61 Chevy and said never again. That's good enough for me as I respect his opinion.
I think "dustless" blasting was intended way more for industrial use for buildings n such. Environmental concerns could put building blasting outta biz if there's no way to mitigate the silica in the neighborhood air. Someone thought it was a good idea and sold franchises to car guys as traveling blasters. I had some external Packard parts done. Fenders radiator shell, etc. The mess out back was gone in a few weeks, the final finish was really no different than regular blasting, the work was in keeping the flash rust at bay. No big deal but something to consider. Would I do it again? No. The guy was good at what he did but some shit will NEVER survive sandblasting without warpage. Maybe soda, and I've even had warpage from media blasting. All of it is messy, takes hours if not days of followup cleaning, and a good blaster has to be an artisan if you're to get a good job. You don't have a house framing crew build custom ribbon cut mahogany cabinets. Duzzat make sense? Blast a frame, hard parts, axles, but sheetmetal? Just do the suck. Sand or stripper. I already said where to go for a str...shit nearly did it again
I talked to a guy in socal who had his '55 Chevy dipped and said he would never do that again. He showed me where the chemical hadn't been completely neutralized and was still attacking the metal of the car. Larry
Here is an interesting video on the subject. I have been following this guy's channel (Guzzi Fabrication) for about four years and have picked up quite a few useful tech tips. Why you NEVER use DUSTLESS BLASTING on your restoration project !!! - DIY Auto Restoration
He had issues because he skipped an important step, ecoating. If you are willing to spend the money to have a vehicle chemically stripped then you should be willing to spend the money and do the job correctly. I have had numerous body’s and parts chemically stripped, ecoated, and properly prepared for final finishes without issues. Yes, even years later. Cutting corners will bite you in the behind.
The only chemical stripping worth a bent dick was REDI-STRIP. Their process included paint and electrolitic rust removal. It didn't matter if the good metal was like lace. It was left behind. The process also included a serious phosphate wash that neutralized the corrosive elements and was a fairly long term rust preventative during whatever process you followed up with. I had stuff sitting in phosphate for months in the shop and it never rusted. Point of trivia, the phosphate wash was similar in practice to what the OEMs did even back in the 30s. The remnants were a thin white powdery look, and clean bodies ready for finish were referenced as "body in white" showing clean metal. As of 2004 or 2005 a body in white got you a raw body...painted fuckin white. I don't know about today, but when they ordered a "body in white" from Ford for crash testing (we wanted bare metal) they sent us a white painted body. I was told that's the industry standard now (?) but have those at that level become that detached (read that as stupid)?
I received a car form a client recently dustless blasted and epoxy primed. I decided to replace the rocker panels instead of patching them and found them solidly packed with hard packed media . It was packed so hard I had to use a chiseling motion with a scraper to clean it out. I now suggest to my clients not to go that route.
The Jalopy Journal
