Just had my 33 pickup done in Toms River. I think it was $ 1000-1200. for the interior and exterior of the cab, bed, 4 fenders, running boards and complete rolling chassis.
Be careful! Lots of body panels have been warped by sand blasting because the guy doing the work didn't know the correct procedure.
I just had my two piece hood done for $80. Thought it was a little high, but the owner guaranteed me that he would do the work to make sure it didn't get warped. Told him that I only had one 37 hood, so it couldn't be screwed up. It turned out great and if I did pay a little too much, it was worth the quality work.
We have a local industrial shop do blasting for us. We had the Track Car's frame, 47-48 Ford front end, early Olds rearend, driveshaft, an 8inch Ford rearend, and some other oods and ends done a couple years ago for $275.
the guy that did my frame said hes done many ..many bodies with out ever warping one of them..he even showed me pictures of a Mecedes 300 he did..so if that gives you any indication how much trust the owner had in his abilities to get it done with out fucking it up..The guy is like in his mid 60's and has been doing this his entire life..Think he knows how to get it done.
The whole warping thing gives me 2nd thoughts. Think i should just take mine down to metal with a sander and some good old fashioned elbow grease?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Gy4I8jSHE You could look for dry ice blasting if someone around you does this no warping.
If you have the time and space, just go buy a blaster and do it yourself. You can read till your eye's bleed about the proper technique on the interweb. It's a dirty, gritty, agrivating job but it ain't rocket surgery, besides learning something new is fun.
We had a perfect 1964 GTO body that a very reputable blaster got carried away on. Lots of additional bodywork to straighten that puppy out. Beware.
Old tin, ie; model a's and such, should not be sand blasted. They should be media balsted. Make sure if you're gonna pay someone else to do it, that they have the knowledge of the different media materials to do old tin.
BE VERY VERY CAREFULL on WHO BLAST YOUR CAR BODY. The frame is not so critical and will not warp like your body. You would be better off to have the BODY dipped and would be well worth the extra money. It would probally only be a couple of hundred dollars difference. Dipping is so much cleaner and will not warp your body at all. Very few people can blast a car correctly. Blasting usually cost about 1200.00-1600.00 depending on how much material is on the car. Soda blasting would be safer than sand, then have the rust spots sand blasted. To dip a whole car you have to have everything removed including pot metal parts, because they will be eaten by the chemicals. Dipping is about $1800.-$2000.00. Make sure you have the body epoxy primed as soon as you get it back, or it will flash rust and make a huge mess to clean up. I had a customer a few years back bring me a mini cooper body. He wanted to save money to and against my wishes had it blasted. The car was basicly ruined by the blaster.
Honestly it would be a whole lot cheaper and more efficent to buy a portable sand blaster and a couple bags of abrasive and diy. Would cost a whole hell of a lot less.
i just got a 64 riviera done. outside body only with soda and media blasting ran me 800 dollars, no damage was done. as soon as he hit filler of any kind, bondo or lead he stopped on that spot and then i ran over it with a 2" rool lock to see what was there instead of blasting away.
I specialize in blasting autos. It is very important to check out your blaster to see if they are capable of doing a quality job. Heres what you need to ask them- Have they done thin auto sheetmetal before? Do they have references? How long has the blaster been doing auto sheetmetal? What media do they use? Black Beauty is too coarse, regular sand is too soft and will warp panels EASIER than a proper one like starlite or olivine. If they specialize in blasting industrial parts (thick and heavy) ask if they do anything different when they blast sheetmetal. They should answer that they lower the blast pressure and use a less abrasive media. Soda, walnut, and plastic blasting is good for panels that have no rust. They are also safer to use on old sheetmetal than an abrasive. The downsides to these medias are that they will not remove rust and they will slightly polish the metal so the panels will need to be scuffed or etched before priming. For reference, I charge $100 an hour. A model A in good shape (no excessive rust, bondo, paint layers or undercoat) usually runs right at $1000. To break it down I would charge about 75-100 for the frame, 75-100 for all the axles, springs and bars, 500-650 for the body and doors, 150 for the fenders, 50-85 for the stock style hood. If there was any glass, chrome, stainless, or interior that needed to be masked off I would charge extra. To put primer on all the parts I would charge about 350 plus materials.
I worked in a truck body shop for about four years and did a lot of blasting. IMO it's not worth doing the large items yourself, have some one who knows what they're doing do it. I have a 6'X6' blast cabinet I do smaller stuff in but I farm out the big stuff. It's a messy job, takes a lot of time if you don't have the proper equipment and you have to have a place to do it. The media will get all over and if you do in your back yard or garage you will have media every where and will find it hiding in places years from now. I had my panel truck done about five years ago, inside and out and epoxy primed for $600. I had a 8N tractor, just the main part, engine,frame and both axles blasted and primed for $500 about three years ago. You have to shop around. I found price differences of $400-500. It all depends on how much the place wants your work.
Hey Paul, i think i'm going your route. The only thing i'm going to look into blasting may be the frame.Thanks to you and everyone else for all the advice.
I just had two wheels done this week by a shop that blasts trucks. It cost me $60.00 and the wheels were pretty much ruined. I need to find others. In the shop here, if I want the best job possible I chemically strip the sheet metal and clean up with red scotchbrite wheels. This is somewhat labor intensive but most cars run in at about $1,200.00, labor and material. Not bad for absolutly no chance of warping.
For all of the DIY types, the first piece of equipmet you MUST buy is a proper respirator. Don't fool around with your health, ask anyone with any form of COPD how well they get along in life. Youngins tend to take too many chances..... .
Just paid $150 to get my car professionally media blasted. Came out really well. We disassembled it prior to blasting, made everything easier on the (and us).
Well i decided to just go out and buy a nice palm sander and some 80 grit paper and do it myself. Screw the blasting and havin someone else do it. I figured you buy the tool and you add it to your box and you get the satisfaction of doing things yourself. My 31 is pretty straight with no rot at all. Seems the previous owner just sprayed the body with paint and didn't prime or prep her right. Just some surface rust and chipping paint so i figure i'll just make it my summer project to take her down to metal and put a nice coat of primer on her until the funds allow her to get a fresh coat of paint. Any suggestions on a good primer to use or any sanding tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm assuming i'll go section by section and prime as i go.
Use epoxy primer after stripping. If you are using a DA to strip the car keep the moisture to a minimum as your compressor heats up. Sucks to get the car all the way down and fling water droplets all over it. A lock off DA helps, but be careful, you can warp a panel with a da to...
I had my '30 A coupe body blasted, prepped, and etch primed for like $950 a few years ago. Came out great and nothing got warped!
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