Morris Minor Owners Club

This is further to my question a few days ago about the original type of paint on my 68 van. My question arises from my intention to take the body back to bare metal.

I am thinking about media blasting it.

1) Are there panels on the van that should not be blasted due to risk of warping? I would be concerned about the big flat-ish areas on the goods box. The firewall seems to be as thin as a tin can so I am reluctant to get it blasted.

2) Is there a medium that is strongly preferred in this application?

TIA
Don

Hi Don

There's lots of useless / incorrect information online about media blasting and lots of opinions..

I have been blasting for around 28 years and blast a lot of classics and their associated parts, so here's my opinions,

Soda blasting, is the word thats often brandished about but soda is not ideal as although it will remove paint it won't remove rust or any thicker coatings like underseal etc, there are several companies who use the term soda blasting in their blurb but you will find none actually use it on vehicle shells,

Shot blasting, if you want to kill the shell this is the way to go, steel (chilled iron) shot is very hard so all the impact is passed to the workpiece meaning a rough finish and a high risk of distortion, this is normally done at 80psi or more,

Sand, No No No, I believe its now illegal to use, yes it works but it has a high percentage of free silica in it, which is bad for many reasons,

Dustless blasting is a water and glas bead mix, yes it works, but introduces lots of water to the workpiece,

Crushed glass, this is the medium all good companies use, it gives an excellent finish, is relatively fast to remove paint and rust but when used correctly won't distort the panels, this is normally done at 35 - 40 psi,

Regards a morris van, the whole cab can be blasted inc the bulkhead with out any problems, the only thing we do here is paint stripper the roof panel before blasting so that we just have to key for panel with the blaster and not remove the paint,

The van body again here we paint strip the centre of the roof and the upper side panels where you would sign write it before blasting, this is just a precautionary measure so that there's less time and force applied to these panels with the blaster,

I suggest you talk to your local blaster and make sure they are familiar with car blasting compared to steel gates and beams for example as the style of blasting is very different,

And if you do go this route ask the blaster to epoxy prime the shell as soon as its blasted as it will start to flash rust within hours of being blasted,

Hope that helps

Steve

Thanks once again Steve for your expert and detailed advice.

That gives me more confidence to go with blasting and I know what I need to discuss with the blaster.

Don