Spac
I can do wet or dry bead blasting, at "non-commercial rates".... ;)
Don't bother trying to use a bead blaster to remove old powder coating: it is a very slow (and consequently expensive) way to remove it.
Aerosol gasket stripper works well at removing powder coating.
supermattyp
Nathan, ever used a soda blaster? It's supposed to be much more effective at a lower cost and without punching holes in thin metals.
Tigabu
^ This what mo braithir uses at Wheeltech, and they also recover a large % of the soda for reuse...
supermattyp
yeah, soda blasting has gotten real big in the states...so much so that you can actually rent a loaded trailer for the day with it's own compressor, spray, media, generator, pressure washer (for cleanup). Last I checked it was about $250/day and you could probably do a whole car in a few hours.
I think I'm not going to be using this coater any more once I get the header back. I found that I could buy plasti-dip on ebay for about $10/can delivered if I buy $100+ at a time. When I was in Bunnings they had a generic plasti-dip for $22/can.
I think I'll just buy a big case of black dip and maybe a few of different colors (silver, pearls, smoke, etc) and just fdo my own wheels here with dip instead. much cheaper and I would have enough to do the car several times over.
Spac
No, I use either of the glass-bead blasting cabinets. It's MUCH less harsh than the old sand blasting media, or garnet.
The dry one is the mainstay - for things like wheels, control arms, etc.
The wet one is softer, for stuff that won't be painted like carburettor bodies.
I've seen the results of soda blasting carbys and it seems very good.
But it isn't essential. If you're warping or blasting holes in stuff with glass beads, the thing is already rooted.
supermattyp
true true.
I'd like to discuss getting some things stripped down if you have some time and want some coin. I'm always sending stuff off to be powdercoated or painted and knocking out the prep work in advance really cuts down on the costs for me. Also, gives me another excuse to drive through Yass!
supermattyp
picked up the exhaust header today. Turned out nicely. Now to con....vince a few peeps with tools to stroll over my way for a quick install.
Haven't even looked under the car yet to see how the stock cat mounts to the exhaust so I'm guessing sawz-all, exhaust clamp and a few turns of a wrench and it'll be done. Can't be THAT hard can it?