body and interior Dustless Blasting 2002 Car Body - Picture Heavy!

[rapandi]

Just wanted to share my experience with dustless water blasting. 

 

I spent a few days with a wire wheel and also an orbital sander and started stripping paint of the car. Stripping paint is not hard. What is hard is stripping the body filler. It started proving to be a tedious job and very messy. I don't have a decent air compressor either to run a pneumatic sander. Anyway long story short I went ahead with this dustless blasting technique of stripping.

 

Verdict - I am glad I did it. It strips through all the filler and paint very quickly and doesn't warp any panels. It produces a cold spark when the grit and high pressure water come in contact with the metal. The finished metal surface is very pretty to look at. It is clean and free of any contaminants. A metallic silver type of look. The entire car got sprayed with a rust inhibitor which prevents the car from flash rusting for 72 hours. This inhibitor actually works really well. I think it depends what part of the world you are in but here in Aus I have had no flash rusting. My car did not get primed immediately. Between blasting and body shop was 3 days. No rust at all.

 

Some pics below  

 

Regards

 

Raj

 

Awaiting pick up

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the brass brazing below - from factory. If you look closely you can also see the lead welded join between roof and C-Pillar

 

 

Notice the finish of the metal after blasting. Also the brazing between tail panel and 1/4 panels

 

 

Black specks in the below pic are loose remains of the bituminous sound deadner

 

 

Stored it in a container after completion of blasting

 

 

 

This stuff is really loud so if you do it make sure you are far from your neighbours etc.

Edited July 6, 2016 by rapandi

[rapandi]

 

 

At around the 3 min mark you will see us rolling the car over. That roller was a real blessing cause we could blast the underside of the car really quick standing upright!

Edited July 6, 2016 by rapandi

[vinceg14]

Looks good. Did it leave a rough surface on the metal? About how long did this take from set up to finish? 

[rapandi]

Yes it leaves a rough finish but not too heavy. It depends how high the pressure is turned up and also the type of grit used. This same process could be used in say a marine environment to strip iron pipes where you would use a heavier grit and higher pressure. In that case you will achieve a rougher surface. 

 

Took 6 hours. 

[NYNick]

Looks great Raj! No rust either!

[Captain Manly]

May we ask you what they charged for it?

Justin 

[LikeStig]

Really cool! Wish I would have done this with my project. 

[tzei]

Nice! Something i would love to do my touring chassis.

[RyanEsca]

I had been wondering if anyone on the forum had tried it, thx for sharing your experience :thumbsup:

[PaulTWinterton]

Awesome!  In another life I'd like to complete a ground-up restoration, starting with that process.  Kudos mate!

 

In the 4th picture the worker looks like a giant or the car looks the size of an original Mini. 

 

We'll look forward to seeing a totally restored Golf tii.  I presume you'll respray it in Golf yellow.

 

Edited July 6, 2016 by PaulTWinterton

[rapandi]

9 hours ago, NYNick said:

Looks great Raj! No rust either!

Thanks Nick. I wish the no rust was true for this 44 year old car. There is rust on the car - the spare tyre well has rust holes, drivers side floor pan has rust (bought a WN floor) and the heater plenum area has rust (this is going to be the tricky bit to fix). However I knew about these well in advance. I was expecting to see some surprises during the blasting stage but fortunately none. The under side of the car was coated with years and years of gunk/oil/dirt and I was really happy that was the case because it literally protected the chassis from rusting.  

[rapandi]

8 hours ago, Captain Manly said:

May we ask you what they charged for it?

Justin 

Justin it costed me about $250/hr. They did about 9 hours of work on it but only charge me 6 hours (mates rates). I had to pay for the trailer and transport too cause I don't have a tow bar on my car. 

 

I guess you could invest in a quality air compressor and orbital sander  etc and do it by hand. It would have taken me a whole month if not longer because I would be doing it on the weekends and possibly after work hours. Stripping the outside of the car is not hard. It is doing the engine bay, the inside of the trunk, the cabin are, underside of the wheel arches, under the chassis. All the contoured surface and nooks and crannies are what add to the challenge. HTH

[rapandi]

7 hours ago, tzei said:

Nice! Something i would love to do my touring chassis.

 

If you do go down thhis track then try and find a way to rotate the chassis - borrow a rotisserie or build a cheap tiptisserie like in the video. You will get a better finish and you will also make it cheaper for yourself because the blaster will move through it quickly. The tiptisserie costed me about $50 to build. Good luck

Edited July 6, 2016 by rapandi

[rapandi]

7 hours ago, RyanEsca said:

I had been wondering if anyone on the forum had tried it, thx for sharing your experience :thumbsup:

Your welcome!

[rapandi]

6 hours ago, PaulTWinterton said:

Awesome!  In another life I'd like to complete a ground-up restoration, starting with that process.  Kudos mate!

 

In the 4th picture the worker looks like a giant or the car looks the size of an original Mini. 

 

We'll look forward to seeing a totally restored Golf tii.  I presume you'll respray it in Golf yellow.

 

 

Hahaha - I was wondering if someone would pick up on that. The car is actually pretty high - cause that rolling dolly is about 700mm off the ground. I am like 6'2'' and that guy is taller then me (you can see me helping him rotate the car at the around the 3 min mark in the video)! There are two people blasting the car (one of them in the video is short).

 

Yeah I will have it resprayed back to Golf Yellow (purist here). Thanks for the kind words.