[ghack]

I am planning to strip my '68 down to bare metal, so it can be primed, bodywork and paint, etc. Can it be media blasted with the interior, engine, etc. still in the car? Anyone ever did this? I am prepared to chemically strip it the old fashioned way - spray on paint stripper and lots of elbow grease. Suggestions would be appreciated.

[68z28sd]

yes it can, but be prepared for lots of dust everywhere. i do this for bodyshops all the time, ecpecially if no color change is desired and jambs are ok. that being said i would strip out the interior, remove doors and fenders ect. the engine can be covered, so no big deal.

[no69x-44]

Let me just start off by saying that I'm no expert on this, but IMHO ... I know that media has now become very popular and certainly does a decent job. But when it was time to do mine, I went the old fashion way and used a chemical stripper. In the end I felt I had more control of it and didn't have the mess that media blasting causes. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, the media gets everywhere. You will have media coming out nooks and crannies for quit some time.

[zdld17]

I did this too , with the glasses in place but taped with cardboard as it can etch lightly. As it was mentioned, this stuff goes everywhere. I used the plastic media and left a very smooth finish. Revealed lots of bad stuff.

[David C]

If you have the money, I would get it blasted. I stripped some parts myself, had some chemically dipped and stripped, and the shell blasted. Stripping it yourself obviously works quite well and you have control over what gets done and how well but is time consuming and messy. I was happy with the chemical dip except that in hindsight it was quite difficult to get paint (or sealer) back into the hidden areas. I had to basically pour some DP sealer down into door shells and fenders and rotate the parts in all directions to get the sealer into all the crevices, and you lose any calks or dipped sealers that were factory applied and still intact. The media blast did a good job, but as mentioned by others, we were still blowing and vacuuming it out up to final paint time !

[rbanks40]

I would definitely media blast it. I tried the ol' chemical stripping and it was a nightmare. Between the chemical burns and the smell of that stuff it was not worth the cost savings.

[deerhunter]

What type of blasting media is recommended for the body?

[camjoe63]

Watching CCR ( Chop Cut Rebuild ) they recommend using Poly Bead due to the reduction of heat that product puts out under blasting but at $100 per 50lb of media that gets expensive. I have always used Glass Bead on my Sheetmetal and I have had no problems as long as you move around to minimize the heat that it generates.

Joe

[68z28sd]

i use plastic beads in my shop also, it is expensive so it must be done in a contained environment, so you reuse it. after media blasting i push the car outside and clean up the bad rust areas with sand!

[oakster]

I just had a '72 GTO I'm restoring media blasted and I will end up going this route on every restore I do going forward. A good shop will tape all the jambs and holes to keep the media out of you car as much as possible.

I've gone the chemical route a couple of times and it can be more of a mess and leads to paint issues if everything isn't perfectly cleaned out, plus all the spots that are hard to reach.

[kgoings]

What is a round bout estimate for getting a 68 blasted? ballpark figure.

I have a 68 and I plan on stripping it all the way down..windows out, just the shell. and having it blasted subframe too. One question i have, I have seen tons of pics of cars in restoration and the subframe is seperated from the body. Should it be blasted that way? And if so, do I take the car together to the shop and then disconnected the subframe from the body??

[68z28sd]

cost, about $600 i would guess. unless you have a dolly for the body, leave the subframe on do the car can be rolled and moved.