The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Redistrip or Sandblast

I've moving along getting the replacement panels welded in the '50. Since everything is off the truck except the cab, I intended to get down to bare metal on the panels and start fresh. Wanted to get opinions from the veterans out there on the best clean up method. I'm thinking media blasting or Redistrip. There is a Redistrip shop in Indianapolis and I took a rusty bedside in and had it stripped. Came out great and no rust. Made it easy to patch a couple of areas. I've heard pros & cons about Redistrip. Pricewise, the Redistrip is a bit more expensive vs blasting. The Redistrip method doesn't remove any metal whereas blasting is a bit more harsh. Which is the best way to go? Thanks for the input.

Steve

1950 Chevrolet 3100

I've used the Redi Strip shop in Indy. They do very good work. I've also used Indianapolis Dry Strip for media blasting. They are great too.

My experience tells me it really depend on what you're trying to do. The chemical stip works pretty quickly but I'm concerned about two things. First, it can remove material that is intended to buffer between pieces of metal. In many cases, this material cannot be replaced without separating the metal. You may find this in hoods or decklids. Second, I've seen the chemical stay in seams and then start to grow stuff. I had a 60 El Camino body stripped and let it sit in my garage for a year or so before I metal prep'd and shot it. During that time, the material grew some sort of stuff. I'm worried that this could happen under the paint and push it off the car. I don't see how you could be sure you got everything out of those seams before painting.

The dry strip process is pretty good but they are limited to what they can get at. There are areas between panels that they just can't reach with the gun. It can also be a problem if you're trying to spot blast a car (e.g., do the floor pan without touching the body paint). A little carelessness can destroy a point job. Another problem is that the media ends up everywhere and it's hard to get out of those nooks and cranny's. This too can push paint off over time.

It's been a few years since I used Redi Strip but they used to take a long time to get things back to me. Hobbyists are last. Big pieces can take a long time to get into the tank. IDS is fairly quick. I've had complete cars done there in about 2-3 weeks. I usually have small parts (e.g., fenders and doors) back in a week.

Bottom line is that there are pros and cons with both methods. You have to just think through what you're doing and decide. For me; I'm using media blasting exclusively now.

Good luck.

I prefer bird-shot from 25 yards. It gives it that "old" look that's so desirable.

Ive heard a new technique is dry ice instead of shot or walnut shells or garnet? any thoughts on that?

I've never heard of dry ice, but baking soda blasting is soluable in water, so you can rinse it out and it dissolves.

I'm doing it at home with a blaster and garnet.
Leaves a clean surface and thats what I'm aiming for, for a top paint job.

Roll the truck out onto a plastic sheet and hang another sheet on the opposite side.

Garnet doesn't float in the air and is easy to recover and recycle.

I built a small pressurised sandblaster but my air reservoir was to small, so I recycled a large domestic LPG gas bottle, fitted pressure gauge and pop-off relief valve and blasted like crazy till I ran outta media 15 minutes later.
So, now I got another big domestic LPG gas bottle and now cutting that up to have a larger pressurised media supply, this is never ending, I spose buy a bigger compressor when I bring this master Blaster into service.

Sure tears off the layers of paint though.

I just heard of a new one. Shop here in WA. uses plastic beads. less harm on the metal. Back tio the dry ice post. I saw a quick clip in Classic trucks.Thought someone may have heard about the process.

Using plastic beads is nothing new. Its removes the paint layer by layer but will not touch rust. In order for that many use glass beads.

But as for soda blasting, the big major paint manufactors like PPG, Dupont etc DO NOT, WILL NOT warranty any paint product that has been applied over a soda blasted part.
The film it leaves behind on the metal is darn near impossible to remove...Eric

Dry ice in nothing new to the stripping business. It has it's uses as the CO2 goes away and there is no media cleanup. No very many shops use it that I know of. On another note...Soda ash is caustic. Be carful where you use it

So is soda blasting, and dry ice blasting the same, or two totaly different ways to blast?

different "media" used in blasting

When you're talking rust removal, why blast at all? or send out a large part to have it dipped? The cost in transportation and processes would be greater than using a neutral Ph product like the D-Rust-It fluid. It can be sprayed or pumped over large items easily and it won't attack any other material that I am aware of.

Have you used the d-rust-it product Lotusboy???
If so pleas give us a report. If you use it in a tank, you can reuse it, if you spray it on and rince it off you can't recover it. At $6 a gallon I'm wondering how many gallons or how many applications it would take to strip a cab, or fender or hood, or a heavily rusted wheel rim, etc.
The main thing that you seen to be overlooking is, that Redistrip or blasting removes, rust and PAINT. So with the d-rust-o tiy need to 1)clean all grease etc. from surface 2)strip paint and fillers from surface 3)cleen surface again 4) apply d-rust-it 5) clean surface again.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

I didn't reply to this earlier, because, it appears that I upset some people on the other topic. It was certainly not my intention. I believe I answered most of your questions. If not, you might be able to PM or e-mail me w/ any remaining questions. Thank you for your interest.

Lee

For paint stripping: I heard that if you place a handi-wrap on parts over paint stripper then it will remover paint better.. any thoughts.

I found a product that uses sugarbeets. Anyone else heard of that product?

Sara BOO, Sounds like it might work. Chemical strippers use liquids that have aeromatic properties. Stuff like acetone, benzine, etc. As these evaparate quickly I could see where someone would try to keep these vapors close to the paint with some sort of sheet. Just make sure the chemicals don't melt your plastic.

captain: yep, I heard of it. I read up on it in Old Cars Weekly some time ago. Called RustBeeters I think. I was going to try some of it but if I remember correctly it was going to be about 45 bucks for a five gallon bucket. Not at that price!!

Well that's a lot cheaper than the "d-rust-it". I ordered a gallon of concentrate for $59.50. Supposedly you can mix it (10:1) but used it un-diluted. I soaked a cast iron water outlet and housing in the solution overnight, actually for 24 hours. To prep it before going into the d-rust-it, I had scrapped all of the loose rust from the inside that I could with a screwdriver, on the bench grinder, wire brushed all I could get at with a 6” wheel, and soaked/scrubbed them with detergent. After 24 hours it was pretty much free of rust but had a real bad black smut that I scrubbed on for a half hour with a wire brush. I had black crap all over everything, the sink, the buckets my hands. I think the cleanup of the black stuff was worse than just wire brushing it or sandblasting it. Again, it took a lot of time to clean up, this you don’t have with the other two. In the end, no matter which method you use, in the hard to reach places, you either have some rust left on the inside that you can’t clean up or some black sooty smut that you can’t get at to clean up.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

We could all raise sugar cane and make our own molasses, built a big tank like a swimming pool and just dunk the whole truck!! That would make a SWEET ride. I've got a quart from last year I'll donate.
edit: but then molasses aren't cheap either!!

I use Redi Strip in Allentown, PA...they can do any size up to and including a whole cab or frame. Takes off/out all rust, bondo, dirt and other foreign matter. I lke it better than blasting because you get a much smoother finish (plus it provides an oxide coating for rust protection), you're not knocking media out of your truck for the next 6 months and it's quick. Downside is initial investment it's pretty expensive...but there's a labor saving payback because of the pristine condition of the dipped metal.

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To All,

Remember, for any product you are using, the instructions MUST be adhered to, for the best results.

If basic instructions are not followed, the results should not be discussed or they will be taken out of context, and a otherwise good product may be viewed as flawed.

Please visit: http://www.stovebolt.com/bboard/cgi-bin//ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=31;t=000108
for clarification of some of the issues.

Lee

I will be finished with my undercarriage in the next few months and I have a question. With the truck completly disassembled, what has been the cost to media blast an AD's sheet metal and all the various miscellaneous parts?

My 2 cents - I sandblasted parts of the interior of my cab - BIG MISTAKE. I doubt if I'll ever get all of the sand out of it. I spent an hour with an air hose and a vacuum and sand is still coming out. I went back to strip discs and wire brushes to finish stripping it.

Have you ever noticed most of the hot rod/classic car builders use some sort of media blasting for sheet metal and frame stripping? As a individual, I believe in following the tried and true methods of the many professionals that have come before me. Media blasting is not the cheapest method, however it is the most comprehensive way of removing all foreign matter and leaving a pristine surface. Minus the clean-up of residual media, I have found blasting to be the finest bang-for-my-buck method for stripping on my projects.

Tony

bigchevy3600: regarding cost can depend on the type of media. If your talking sand blasting I get "blasting sand" from the local concrete mixing folks at about 5.50 per 100lb bag. Then it depends on how bad a chassis or part is before you start. Recently a 68 pickup chassis took us about 350 lbs using a small pressurized blasting pot. If you use a siphon blaster you will use/waste more sand. I'd figure about 600 lbs would do it all but again, depending on how bad. I finally got around to ordering my 20 gal pressurize pot and it should be here this coming week. I'm anixious to see how it does on my panel chassis. I'm about 3 months behind on this project but will catch up! I might add that other "media" will definitely be more expensive. I use glass, aluminum oxide, garnet and some other stuff in my bead blasting cabinet but that stuff runs from $19 to $29 for a 50lb barrel. Hope this helps answer your question.

The nice thing about readystrip is it makes the waste clean up somebody else's problem. If you blast anything on your back 40 you have a big pile of sand and a bunch of old toxic paint shards.