Which blasting media to use?

"michelle" wrote

Michelle?

LOL... yes, Michelle. That's my husband's website. :-)

Through a good friend of mine, I have after hour access to a blast shop -- they use wallnut shells. It does a great job, much better than the bead stuff I've used.

Looks good to me. Don't apologize for the time it has taken. The work is half the fun :)

Remco

Michelle, Although I'm sure you're aware of this, make double positive to wipe the car with mineral spirits or some kind of cleaner (ask whoever sells you the media or does the blasting what to use, or your paint shop you go to) before painting it (after wallnut shell blasting). It leaves a layer of oil on your metal, which will prevent paint from sticking to it. You do NOT want that after spending however many grand on a paintjob. Looks like its going to turn out very nice!

-Kevin

Okay, my next question is, if I go with walnut shells, what size grit should I order?

I'm assuming I don't want the coarse, but do I want medium or fine? Also, any idea how many 50 lb bags I am going to need? I still need to strip the hood, doors, fenders, and inside the trunk area. Most of the main portion of the body is done, and of course, I don't have a roof I need to strip :-)

{{{{ SNIP}}}}}}

Depends on what size squirrel you've got !!!!!

(I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist)

Susan S.

Put a tarp under the car, and make sure it's *clean* when you park the car over it. Then blast away. When you have worked for a while, the tarp will have collected most of the blasting media (and whatever other crud came off the car). Now you can collect it, siphon it clean of debris and reuse it. It loses it's effect after a while when the rough sharp edges of teh particles wear and round off, but you'll see it losing the "edge" and you will know when to dump it and load a new fresh batch of media in the container.

Jan