Depends on what it looks like before stripping. The more rust,and the worse the rust,the worse it will look after stripping.
I have never media blasted so i dont know for sure, but when you sandblast rust it takes it down to the good metal beneeth the rust, so if the rust has pitted or gone through the metal it will still show the pitts, but the rust will be gone, and if it is right through then there will be a hole left, but no rust in the hole, then all you have to do is weld a patch in to replace the holey part. or somethign like that, its kinda hard to explainstuff using a keyboard lol
When blasting, i've had good luck using plastic media-- which gives a good strip with lower air pressure. That said, typically i use media blasting to get through paint and then more traditional abrasive rust removal techniques to ensure removal and a clean surface. -scott noteboom
the guy i take sheet metal to uses coal slag dust...takes off all the rust and doesn't warp. he uses low pressure with a VERY high volume..you should see the black cloud when he blasts!
I had my local sand blaster do my '33 Ford PU cab recently. There were some areas that were quite heavily corroded and pitted, he said it would be difficult to get rid of all the rust from these areas. He referred to it as "staining", and although it would eventually blast clean, it would require a more time in that area, which equals heat and therefore distortion. I therefore decided to leave these areas "stained" but almost clean, as I would be cutting most of it out for repair anyway.
I found a lot of pin holes in the heavily rusted areas. The rest of it came out very well. The pin holes are from the metal being soooo far rusted, that by the time I would have sanded through or acid dipped, it would have really wiped that area out. The areas are thin, and now primered over. Ill probably crank both the heat and wire speed, and back the pin holes with my brass plate (so the weld doesnt stick to it) and try to fill them up before cutting areas totally out. I am happy with the media blasting my guy did.
After Media Blasting, which is prefered..... to hit the whole body with an etching primer before the bodywork or bodywork then primer?
6 pack of one, half case of the other. Better to get something on the bare metal to prevent oxidation while you work the body. Otherwise, you have to de-rust all over again. Given Austin humidity, CYA. there are metal surface etching preparations that can be used before prime coat if the body sits a day or three.
plastic medial blasting will make the steel look like new, wherever it was covered with paint but not rusted. Plastic media won't do much to rust, so you need to use a hard abrasive media like sand or glass or some type of oxide on the rusty spots. These areas will look like rough pitted metal, and will need to be prepared with primer and possibly filler (after welding up the holes!) before you paint them.
A buddy and I have been soaking rusted parts in Molasses and water (1 to 4) with excellent results. We had a torn apart '28 roadster submerged for 3 weeks, when it came out it was Henry Ford clean. A few minutes with a strip-it disc made it shiny new. Try it.... blasting is too aggressive.
We go down to our local horse feed emporium and buy bulk molasses. We built a tank out of plywood and 2x4's, lined it with 6 ml poly and away you go. You'll notice some mold forming on top even if you try to seal up the top. But we just skim it off. After 3 to 4 weeks, pressure wash the gunked on molasses off and dry the parts with air quickly to avoid flash rusting. The surface is beautifully clean.
Thanks for the tips! I was expecting the rust to be gone as well, so now I know what to expect...I'll clean the rust up with a wire wheel and shoot a coat of the etching primer asap. Probably roll into the Round Up with a slightly green tint
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