Media blasting a Bugeye body

[rbkimmel]

Hi;
New member here, Bob and I'm jumping in with both feet on a 1960 Bugeye Sprite. I originally posted this over in the Big Healey Forum and it was nicely pointed out that I might get better info her with the other little guys. The car 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 did get a certificate of authenticity from BMHT which indicates it is a matching numbers car-only it left the factory with white paint. 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

 

[Rut]

Bob,
Welcome to the forum! I have no personal experience with dustless blasting, but what I've read has been good. The water keeps the temp down so there's less chance of warping and I understand it even cleans out rust. Good luck and post plenty of pictures...before and after!
Rut

 

[Nelson]

Yesterday I watched a TV show where they just put the car just outside their garage and a mobile dustless blaster came and stripped the car. I think it was the Gas Monkey (Fast and Loud?) show. It is a slick process.

 

[aeronca65t]

Welcome Bob!

I had never heard of this until you asked the question. I did a little internet research and it really looks like a good process.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone else knows how well it works or how it turns out on your Bugeye.

By the way, I drive through Lawrenceville once a week (on the way to babysitting my grand kids).

 

[Whitephrog]

This is a video of the guy that I have used giving a tour of his facility and talking about media and warping. He and his son have another custom car business as well. Thought it might be useful to the discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfz2eTumPnA

 

[PAUL161]

Sounds great, but, if water is involved, it probably wouldn't be a good process for T series cars with all wooden frame work. We don't want that 60+ year old wood to get wet. PJ

 

[PAUL161]

Lawrenceville, NJ ! Had many a dinner in the train station! Stayed at a motel somewhere close to it within walking distance. The wife liked walking to the shops across the river in New Hope! Sorry for the runaway mouth! Just brought back many happy memories there.:thumbsup: PJ

 

[mightymidget]

the video is worth the watch, thanks for link

 

[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. I'm going to cut and paste this for the Big Healey guys because that's where Bob started