I just got my 54 F100 back from the sandblaster... I had them blast the entire truck and epoxy prime it. However, when I got it back, the truck still had body filler all over it (which was now covered in primer). I was under the impression that blasting would remove the body filler? I asked the owner and he told me to remove the filler, it would have to be done by a grinder because the metal would get to hot. Wondering if this is correct or if he just doesn't want to go back and fix it? Also, will I need to remove all body filler before I paint it? Looking for some opinions from those who have more experience than I do!
Sandblasting will take some filler off, but not if it's very thick; that needs to sanded down thin for blasting to remove it. The other bad thing is whatever is under that filler is still there. Your blaster should have made you aware of this before he called the job done. Should you remove that filler? Absolutely....
He is right if you blast the metal to close you get it hot and warp the metal then you have a oil can problem because the metal has been stretched and is a bitch to get it straight again. You should have held off on the primer and got the rest of the material off and did the body work then did your priming.
Your chosen blaster obviously is not skilled in blasting body panels. Yup sandblasting sure will remove all the filler in the hands of a skilled operator. The shoebox in our avatar has been 100% stripped and 100% blasted in some places there was over 3/4" filler . The blaster left little molehills of filler on everywhere to prove how thick and totally covering the filler was. Nope no warping or overheating just using sand. Of course the car has now gone through a total metamorphosis . If sand blasting won't remove filler nothing will. Our car must have had numerous gallon cans of filler turned to dust by the blaster. We were lucky as in the filler was not covering any rust. But we sure had rust elsewhere. Blast the filler away.
I do dustless media blasting , when the bondo is really thick I use a propane torch and scraper to remove before I blast . my blaster does not warp the metal but it is easier and cheaper and faster to do with the torch. The sand blaster is right if he took out the heavy bondo with sand it will warp the metal . However he should have removed and blasted the metal clean before epoxy . My experience is that it never good under the bondo . I don't know what your agreement was with him I always discuss how far we will take when discussing money .
It's all about time. He can blast it off if you allow him enough money (time). As the usual reason to blast something is to remove rust, he probably did that. Your labor to remove the putty is cheap. If there is that much putty in there you are probably going to have to work those spots anyway and the primer will be redone at that time.
In my case, I do my own sandblasting (glutton for punishment) and my intent was to remove any and all traces of Bondo,it hid a multitude of sins. Bondo had been liberally applied to rust in a previous accident,,I intended to to replace with new metal anyway,and yes there is some distortion of the surrounding metal if you concentrate on one area too long but if you come back to that area several times it can be kept to a minimum. HRP
Thanks for everyones response... I think what I'm going to do is grind down/scrap off the body filler and then have it re-primed... I'm hoping the blaster will work with me and blast some of it so I can find where exactly all the body filler is... Wish me luck!
Hi cody.... Dont sand blast you project use some other media to strip the paint ..... sand blasting will case harden the outside metal and ruin your metal files..
The guy I use to blast uses 3-4 different media, garnet, 2 sands, walnut shell. The car is stripped of all filler, most seam sealer, and is not warped. You stay on site while he blasts and he'll let you know when he finds something that looks like shit. There were a couple spots we decided to stop blasting and I'd just cut the panel out. Cuts the blasting time and cost. He specializes in auto blasting and was a paint and body man before he started the blast business. My suggestion on your vehicle, grind the filler out and have those areas spot blasted, or just start cutting them out when you find rust. That first coat of primer is the foundation for everything, find out what kind of paint it is, you might want to take that off too?
when my friend had his shop he would not blast bondo if it was thick he would blast around it then mechanically remove as much as he could then blast off the remains as not to warp the panels , then depending on the customer he would flash prime it ( thin coat of sealer) or phoscoat it to keep the metal from flash rusting . when it went into his shop we would resand the body anyways after the repairs were done .
If you have that much Bondo to begin with then most likely the metal underneath will have to be either cut or 're shaped so you don't end up with the same amount of bondo. It's not that difficult to strip it mechanically, and if you have a lot of rust under the bondo then you will have to replace the metal anyways. Make sure you epoxy primer your sheet metal before you star laying down some bondo to prevent moisture from getting trapped in between your metal and bondo.
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