im in the process of looking for a donor car for my 65 stang, the body and chassis of my current one is in pretty bad shape. i was wondering if any one here has ever done a full media blasting of their car. and how much they spent.

 

Call around and see what they cahrge for doing a complete car. I have heard as low as $400 and as high as $1000, it depends on what size car they have to do and how much work they need to do to it, like flipping it over to do the bottom.

One thing is for sure though. you need to gut the car completely, remove everything from it, including glass, the dash, every interior piece, the headliner, windshield wipers and mechanisim, fuel tank, engine, trans, master cylinder, and anything else you dont want ruined or filled with media.

Doing all the work myself, bought the tools, air compressor and pretty much everything else. If you want to go that way, figure on $1500-$2500 for tools. Provided you have the room to do it. The bonus of buying all the tools required is you can do more cars in the future and also use the tools for other projects.. But,...

it takes more room than a single car garage, its tough to do it in your driveway. I live in BFE and 1/2 my driveway is gravel, so a bit of sand or media on it is no big deal. If you try to do it inside you will have sand everywhere and in everything in the garage/shop. its an outdoor activity. Grit in your hair is really really fun however...

 

You can't remove the dash unless you want to spend a few days drilling out all those spot welds. That sucker is welded on. And there is no reason to do it, since the dash needs to have the paint and rust removed too.
A funny story......Whenever I got mine back from having the body completely stripped, new metal welded in, etc. I took it out for the first time and opened the vent at about 70 MPH. I was immediately covered with about an inch of sand, because they forgot to get the sand out from the cowl before giving it back to me.

 

Yeah Glen. I meant the dash pieces that are removeable, like the guages cluster and pad... etc.. Also the dash in the later mustangs comes completely out, just not in the early cars..

But hey a cowl repair on a 71 with no floor is much easier. just flip it on its side and have at it with a sawzall...lol..

 

I acid dipped my car, it flows through everything so there isnt a spot of rust left. After I'm finished with the sheet metal its going back to get dipped again and E-coated. That way it takes care of everything from the exterior to the inside of the rockers. Its a bit more expensive but worth it to me.

 

Yeah, that is the ticket. Also, have you heard of Arm and Hammer brand of Soda blasting? It looks like a really clean way to blast it without warping any metal.
Yeah, Thumpin, after I typed that, I realized you were talking about the dash pad, and not the dash. Say what you mean, and mean what you say bro.

 

i rather sand it or use a stripper but each way has it good and bad points

 

if you want an odd fact the us airforce on there stealth planes use modified corn starch, eStrip GP, which doesn't harm composites so may be good for fibreglass parts

 

Prices seems to vary widely depending on where you live. I'm in the Northeast and I paid $1300. The car was placed on a rotisserie and media blasted inside, outside and underneath then shot with two coats of direct to metal epoxy primer sealer.

 

I've always worn a hood to do any of this sort of work, but periodically need to take the hood off to de-fog it and / or get a better view of the work piece and see what needs more work. Afterwards the most noticeable thing to me has been that fine grit between your teeth. Ugh. At least it's nothing a can of beer won't cure.