dustless blasting

bluecoupe30!

bluecoupe30!

Well-Known Member
Site Donor
Messages
2,277
Reaction score
1,443
Location
Delta, British Columbia, Canada
anyone have any experience/opinion on the above? Have a new project ( Bugeye Sprite) that needs some media blasting before I start. Sand/walnut/glass bead/etc, etc all have their positives and negatives. Anyone have something to share about dustless? Thanks, Mike
 
Of course no experience here so apologies in advance for the slightly uninformed opinion.

I think it is a way for companies to do blasting work without the investing in a shop and large booth with dust collection. I don't see any real advantage over standard blasting. Perhaps keeping the sheet metal cool. You still get media everywhere in the car, but you have to wait for the solution to dry before you can get it out.

I have the same problem with dry ice blasting. I would like to have my cylinder head and differential blasted with cams & seals in place. The problem is that all of the vendors are mobile. I don't really want a bunch of gunk in my yard.

I suspect if you lookup the shops in your area, they are mobile. If not, maybe the extra metal cooling is worth a try.
 
I had my complete coupe body soda blasted last year. Metal does not get hot from the media and therefore you don't have warped panels.
Once it's done the metal is chemically neutralized. You do have to prime the body or keep it extremely dry or it will begin to rust again.
IIRC it was about $1200 for the body and all the pieces that were removed from the body.
 
Markos said:
Of course no experience here so apologies in advance for the slightly uninformed opinion.

I think it is a way for companies to do blasting work without the investing in a shop and large booth with dust collection. I don't see any real advantage over standard blasting. Perhaps keeping the sheet metal cool. You still get media everywhere in the car, but you have to wait for the solution to dry before you can get it out.

I have the same problem with dry ice blasting. I would like to have my cylinder head and differential blasted with cams & seals in place. The problem is that all of the vendors are mobile. I don't really want a bunch of gunk in my yard.

I suspect if you lookup the shops in your area, they are mobile. If not, maybe the extra metal cooling is worth a try.
Click to expand...

Thank you Markos,
my sentiments exactly! procedure seems to be applied cooler rather that hotter, so less risk of warpage. BUT these mobile "vendors" spray and leave you with the waste. Not what I had in mind. My reticence is based upon creating some sort of a rotisserie for this chassis, then arrange a trailer/enclosed/ or other and then transport this part to an acceptable blaster. It seems I will eventually get to the point where I have created the suitable rotisserie for transport. Take it to experienced blaster, pickup, start project. That you for your input. Mike
 
m5bb said:
I had my complete coupe body soda blasted last year. Metal does not get hot from the media and therefore you don't have warped panels.
Once it's done the metal is chemically neutralized. You do have to prime the body or keep it extremely dry or it will begin to rust again.
IIRC it was about $1200 for the body and all the pieces that were removed from the body.
Click to expand...
Thank you, very helpful. Hope you got what you wanted. This starting point is especially vexing. Experience valuable :)
 
m5bb said:
You do have to prime the body or keep it extremely dry or it will begin to rust again.
Click to expand...

This is the biggest problem. What I read said you need to prime within 72 hours. Obviously all E9's and most everything else will need more than 72 hours of body work before it's ready to prime. Of course any other process that cleans to bare metal will also lead to rust, but at least it doesn't actively contribute.

Myself and a number of other people that I consider qualified agree that the 'heat warps panels' thing is a myth. Creating millions of tiny craters in one side of the panel causes the warpage. More aggressive media does not create more heat, but it does create more warpage. In the dustless process, the water does some of the removal work, and the media moves at a much slower speed in a smaller quantity, so you get less warpage.
 
Layne, you are correct. It is the compressive stress on the surface being blasted the causes warpage. It actually make the blasted surface longer causing to want to arc. The thinner the sheet metal the worse the warping.
 
So what do you guys think about blasting in general? I would like to blast or dip my car for the restoration process. I don't want to hijack this thread with dipping discussions unless Mike wants to go that direction.

The problem with dipping in the US IMO is that nobody seems to offer e-coating. So the unreachable metal is dipped and exposed to the elements and you can't cover it back up.
 
I've had no luck locating a dipping facility here in TX. The only one I knew of in Arlington has closed down. I assume the EPA rides them like a $5 mule, as the old timers used to say.

The more coatings the better, but I'm convinced a product called Cavity Coater (available on Amazon) is suitable for the job. They claim 4000 hour salt spray resistance, which is MUCH longer than zinc plating. The problem is it oozes out of every hole, so you'd want to have your paint job finished before you apply it (and then clean off any ooze) so it doesn't interfere with paint adhesion. It's not a problem if rust has already formed when it's applied, but obviously you'd prefer to get it onto clean metal.
 
Markos said:
So what do you guys think about blasting in general? I would like to blast or dip my car for the restoration process. I don't want to hijack this thread with dipping discussions unless Mike wants to go that direction.

The problem with dipping in the US IMO is that nobody seems to offer e-coating. So the unreachable metal is dipped and exposed to the elements and you can't cover it back up.
Click to expand...

Well, thanks for bringing up "the big dip" option Markos. You see, thing is, there is a Red-Strip, like, 6 km from my place. I have toyed with this choice but the more reading I do on it ( like many topics) the more confusing it gets. (don't ask me how long I have had this car ready to go on its restoration journey) But, this is the reason I have opened this discussion here, as I respect and trust the experience and opinions of this group. So any preference/experience of media blasting over dipping? Mike
 
Layne said:
This is the biggest problem. What I read said you need to prime within 72 hours. Obviously all E9's and most everything else will need more than 72 hours of body work before it's ready to prime. Of course any other process that cleans to bare metal will also lead to rust, but at least it doesn't actively contribute.

Myself and a number of other people that I consider qualified agree that the 'heat warps panels' thing is a myth. Creating millions of tiny craters in one side of the panel causes the warpage. More aggressive media does not create more heat, but it does create more warpage. In the dustless process, the water does some of the removal work, and the media moves at a much slower speed in a smaller quantity, so you get less warpage.
Click to expand...

Layne, the primer coat is a very simple, just thin gray primer so you don't get surface rust. Once all the metal work is done the real primer will be applied. My coupe body has been this way for over a year.
 
I had the Isetta I am restoring soda blasted and primed, it was great and super easy to work with afterwards.
 
my 2 cents worth, I had my car painted recently, exterior, under hood, under the car, but not the interior areas, so that might be an issue for you, the paint removal of those areas
He removed all the exterior paint mechanically
My painter said: the problem with soda, if any remains it will ruin the paint, and if you use any paint stripper to mask off any seams as it will leach out and ruin the paint
 
mark99 said:
My painter said: the problem with soda, if any remains it will ruin the paint, and if you use any paint stripper to mask off any seams as it will leach out and ruin the paint
Click to expand...

My painter told me the exact same thing about soda, just yesterday. I'm still exploring options to prep my car for paint.
 
Just wondering if anybody has experience with plastic media blasting on car panels? I volunteered for many years restoring a Lancaster bomber. We used Plastic blasting on any part we wanted to clean but not disturb the original plating on. Made very short work of any paint you wanted to remove.
 
Plastic media should be a good choice if it does a good job of removing the paint and does not transfer to the metal. My company uses walnut shell for removing Aerospace coatings if we don't want to damage the substrate metal. The problem with walnut shell is it can leave an oily residue that interferes with adhesion. We have a process that removes the oily residue but it would be difficult to do on a vehicle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top