Hi all..... Getting down to being nearly half stripped and now thinking..... Should i get it blasted to speed up and take out alot of hassle of the body work side??

Was thinking of doing all rust work i can see before blast and then any more suprises fixed after..... thats if you think i should!?!?!?!!??!

Also any1 in SA used any1 local??



Cost??

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New from the UK and wanting a NICE little British car!

Don't do it.
Way too many horror stories I have heard

Sand blasting is quick and easy but very as nasty, i would recommend against it, sand will get trapped in small gaps and collect water which will then rust really quick. I don't know anything and haven't heard anything bad about bead blasting, which could be good.

get a wire brush on the angle grinder takes the car back to metal very quickly could strip a whole car in a day if gave it a good go......

There are lots of ways to strip paint off a car. Blasting is perfectly fine as long as you are not silly enough to use sand. (nobody uses sand ) The professionals use garnet or steel grit on heavy stuff, plastic grit or glass for finer stuff and soda for very fine stuff.
My local bloke will use plastic grit on cars as he does not like soda getting into folds and seams.
A good blaster can blast aluminum panels without warping them.
A bad blaster can warp steel panels in seconds.

Paint stripper is a very good way to get paint off as long as you use the right technique. Look for the thread by Brown Clubman about his paint stripping efforts. It is the way I will be doing my LS shortly.

My car will be plastic bead blasted in the next 6 weeks. It will be the third car I have done this to, and if there is a fourth, then it will be blasted as well.

Plastic bead polishes the metal as it removes the paint, and does not take any of the parent material away (except the oxide). It will be primered in one step after that and the rest is up to you. No nasty surprises, no old repairs lurking under left over bog and no downsides that I have experienced (apart from being able to still find the odd bead of inert plastic a couple of years down the track hidden in a deep dark corner...).

Acid bathing..well that's another matter, and sand blasting, that's another one as well....

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

how much does bead blasting usually cost $$$???

Also is there a link to that paint removal?

cheers

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New from the UK and wanting a NICE little British car!

I got a quote only a week ago for 750 dollars, inside and out, sill to sill including doors and boot.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Last week when I was in Mackay I met a bloke who has the Aust/NZ rights to a new kind of blasting. It uses Dry Ice and abrasive. The abrasive is only 10% of what would have normally used. The dry ice once hits the panel vaporises leaving nothing behind. Enviromentally frendly too. Looks to be the new thing.

How can the production of more CO2 be environmentally friendly? (Unless he plants a tree. )

I've got an idea the use of environmentally friendly abrasives (like soda blasting) are of interest only to operators who do a lot of work outside, like blasting bridges, industrial equipment etc. The use of soda means the stuff can be washed away with a hose instead of collected and shovelled into a trailer. Probably conforms a little more nicely to council environmental bylaws as well if you run your business. Less cleanup costs, less guidelines to conform to, less inspections and complaints and the customer pays for it. Soda is 1400 dollars a ton. Garnet is about half that in cost.
I mean, what's the environmental part of the deal here anyay? I mean we're blasting off paints, primers, bog, lead paint and iron oxides...

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.