Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all, I am new to the moggy scene and would like some advice on restoring my 55 splitty I have been thinking about buying a sandblasting kit to strip the car back to the metal what are the pro`s and con`s of this method
Thanks in advance Tony

My feeling would be that it would take forever to strip back to bare metal using this (home) method over the whole car. Commercial blasting kits would be quicker..... Far better to have the shell chemically dipped - It'll cost around £500 and will remove anything that's not steel very efficiently.

PSL184 wrote:Far better to have the shell chemically dipped - It'll cost around £500 and will remove anything that's not steel very efficiently.

Only £500? I though it was a lot more than that

That's what I was quoted for a Minor shell. I think PC spent £600 having their Jag shell dipped.....

Home 'sand' blasting will take for ever. You MUST NOT use sand of course - it's usually broken glass beads - or some other hard grit material, and using at home it will be a total loss system and will cost a small fortune in grit! I would just go with the traditional way - remove wings/boot/bonnet/doors - and then scrape off underseal (paint stripper gun helps) - and cut out the rust with an angle grinder!

Do not have the car dipped unless you are going to have it E coated afterwards, it will rot from the inside out. You cannot get into every nook and cranny with either paint or waxoyle.
We have had four cars dipped now and I think you will find the price escalating if you give them any more than just a shell.
Sand blasting is ok if the operator knows their job, but here again its impossible to remove all of the sand, as the process generated moisture which will bond the sand like cement ,needless to say sand and bare metal = severe rust.

I suppose the other option is plastic blasting, which alot of blasters around here are currently using on car undersides etc, very effective and low cost too. I have a shot-blaster arranged to come in 2 months for my car and thats what he'll be doing for £100 as long as I'm there to help him roll the car over.

Maybe thats something you could look into?

Jordan

Plastic/media blasting seems to be a good compromise yes...I've also been told that the chances of the plastic beads distorting the metal is much less than with with other methods

Soda blasting can be quite effective - certainly very kind to the metal with no distortion, and unlike chemically dipping you don't need to completelt gut the shell. Similar price though depending who you use. I've used both techniques in the past and they both have their places.

Just remembered about this thread while I was looking at a friends plastic-blasted shell today and thought I'd through some pictures up of the results:







amazing finish, after a thourough wipe with panel-clean the car went straight into primer

Jordan

Here's a van body part way through being soda blasted. I was going to have it chemically dipped but there was a 3 month wait for that process at the time (about 18months ago).

anyway, it came out very well - panels unmarked, you could still see the original heat marks where it had been welded together...

These cars are made of such thin sheet metal (as compared to most U.S. cars anyway) that the operator must be experinced or they will warp the metal from heat.

Plastics is waht almost everybody uses around here works great but you will never get it all out. Of course ive seen 10 year old restorations that were blasted first then properly e- caoted and they still look great.

I say blast it we dont have any chemical dippers in my area cause of the terrosit organization known as the E.P.A so blasting is all i ever dealt with .

Hi mckenzie, ive just come across your thread whilst looking for something else. I thought I'd reply as I have my own cautionary tale of sand blasting.

I bought my '55 4 door about 5 years ago and paid a well known local Morris Minor 'specialist' a considerable sum to sand blast the entire underside of the car, chop out rot and weld in repair sections. Then treat and repaint it all.

5 years on and I've paid the underside very little attention (perhaps short sighted, I know) and having been off the road for a year now, I've decided to do a proper restoration on it. I've rolled the car over and begun inspecting the underside.

Well, the 'specialist' did indeed sandblast the car, but never made any attempt to remove the sand. It's even found it's way into the fuel tank. There are lumps of sand stuck to the chassis which have been painted over, box sections were caked in sand and all this sand has been holding moisture.........guess what, I've got a rather rotten car now, expecially as it seems he never did the waxoyl treatment I paid him for (there's no evidence of it anyway).

Perhaps I was seen coming, but make sure whoever does the job does it properly. The sand or blasting media is a pig to get rid of completely.

I know I may be a little late on this thread, but thought I'd share my experience anyway!

Damian.

Very useful thread... I've just had a quote through for sandblasting pskipper's panda car (with his permission, I should add, I don't just decide to sandblast random people's cars). It's a good price - £600 including two coats of primer after the sandblasting, but thanks to this thread I know what sort of questions to ask about the process before we go ahead!