Media Blasting a Bugeye Body

[rbkimmel]

Hi;
New member here, Bob and I'm jumping in with both feet on a 1960 Bugeye Sprite. It's currently painted yellow, kind did it in my garage type job and I'm planning on doing a bare metal job, then rebuilding all the systems when it's done. I found a guy on the other side of Philly that does dustless blasting and am wondering if anyone has done this before. According to the owner of the shop, it uses a slurry of water, rust inhibitor, fine crushed glass and low pressure high volume air to strip all paint. Has anyone done this before? They actually had a Bugeye in their shop that was blasted the day before and it looked pretty good. Apparently it strips off bondo and paint and they found an issue with the rockers which will need replacing. I think my car is pretty solid but I guess you never know.Thoughts or comments?
Bob

 

[CLEAH]

Bob, welcome to BCF! Good question, and I'm interested in seeing if anyone here has experience with that process as I will need my BJ8 blasted soon. And don't miss the Spridgets forum on BCF--that is where the Sprite and Midget folks hang out.

 

[Griz]

No experience with dustless blasting here, but back in 2002 I had my Bugeye soda blasted. Aggressive sand blasting can warp sheet metal while soda blasting will not. I would be interested in knowing if dustless blasting can damage metal also. One caution with soda blasting...make sure all the residual soda is cleaned out of all the seams! The body shop that did my work did not do this, and I believe it is the cause of some paint blisters on my car.

Griz

 

[HealeyRick]

Welcome, Bob.

Don't know if you saw it, but this forum also has a Spridget section if you're looking for Sprite-specific info: https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/forumdisplay.php?31-Spridgets Lots of us own both big Healeys and little Healeys, though so you'll see some of us in both sections.

 

[rbkimmel]

Thanks HealeyRick, always wanted one of those big one too. Think if I feed it and drive it regularly, it will grow? First at bat and I strike out, my bad.... I'm going to restart this page over there if it doesn't get me in trouble.

 

[HealeyRick]

Don't worry about trouble, an interesting question that's applicable to the big Healeys as well. Besides, a lot of bugeye lovers here, too. Only way I know to grow a little Healey into a big one is with a big pile of money.

 

[dcarlg]

I saw this dustless blasting on TV. Some cable car show. It looked impressive. No heat build up.

 

[Typhoon]

Good morning all. I am actually the guy who owns the shop that Bob is writing about and after seeing this last night shot Basil an email volunteering to write a tech article on this (still waiting to hear Basil). We're a small shop, with a good book of work and I also promised I would not make any "shameless business plug" in doing so and I'm not going to identify my shop-there are plenty of good shops doing this type of work around the country. I'm on this forum as an enthusiast, a seeker of facts and fun. Real quickly, the Wet or Dustless blasting uses a mixture of water, finely crushed glass and a rust inhibitor under high volume air to remove paint, old bondo and rust from car bodies, both steel, fiberglass and aluminum. It is really the starting point for any truly "bare metal" restoration and will give the restorer a clean shell to start with any existing problems exposed and ready for repair. The rust inhibitor infused in the slurry will prevent any flash rust and a post blast pressure washing (with a rust inhibitor feed) removes most residual media. The rust inhibitor is stable and from completion of the blasting (depending on temp. and humidity) will resist flash rusting for up to 72 hours. During that window, the coach work can be fully inspected and repairs can be planned or made in the "bare metal" state. Prep for priming is as simple as a compressed air blow down and wiping with a surface clean paint prep. If more work is anticipated, the vehicle can be primed with either a workable direct to metal or epoxy primer. This system will not cause any warping as the slurry temperature is usually within just a few degrees of ambient air temps at point of impact. The system was developed in the petrochemical and marine construction industry to prep high pressure piping to bare metal for welding and heavy protective coatings. For auto restoration, there is absolutely no match for it. Most dry blasting can heat up metal and cause warping or distortion and damage the sheet metal's surface. Soda blasting (it's salt) leaves residuals that can not be neutralized-none of the major paint manufactures that I know will warrantee paint adhesion on a car soda blasted, you also can deal with below the surface rust. While the costs can be high for some, typically +/-$1000 for an exterior up to a couple thousand for rotisserie work (excluding priming) figure out how much paint remover or sand paper it would take to do half as good a job and then think about the time it would take. I have done my own cars this way. There's more to it but that pretty good for a start. This is a copy of what I posted to questions on the Spridget Forum, hopefully I'll find some time to write an more indepth article