Best blasting method

[64studeavanti]

All,
As I stated in another post, I am getting ready to do a restoration of one of my Speedsters. I plan on a body off restore. So, any ideas on how to strip the body and frame down to metal?
It looks like I can have it sand blasted, dustless blasted, or dipped.
I am looking to farm this out. I have spent countless hours sand blasting an Avanti frame and stripping the body with D/A sanding and soda blasting and have no desire to go that route again.
At this point I am leaning toward dustless blasting as it looks like I will have 72 hours to get it in primer before it flash rusts.
Any feedback?
Any thing to watch out for?

[(S)]

Most of the frames I have done I had good luck with a scraper and a stiff wire wheel on a buffer machine. It all depends on how much rust you encounter. You can always have them spot sandblast what you can't get at, and the heavier rust. Every car is a bit different. You'll be surprised what a stout brush can do on the end of a buffer.

[RadioRoy]

How about one of those pneumatic needle scalers for the chassis?

https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-needle-s...xoCUQsQAvD_BwE

Regarding the body, I have always heard that if the base layer of paint is solidly adhering to the metal, that it was best to not strip to bare metal. That was because adhering the paint to the metal was the most difficult part of the adhesion process. Do the new paint chemistries stick to metal so much better than the old ones?

[Noxnabaker]

If you "needlehammer" the rust craters you just close & keep the rust & it will keep on growing under whatever protection you use on top, & the same for wirebrushing with angle grinder, the speed is to high & you'll just bend the rust tops over eashother. Wirebrushing by hand is better but one will anyway only get the top lose layer off. Done & seen the results on a lot of cars & ships, but few people actually see the later / future result on a car's frame under their car...
Blast!
(& on the tugboat we have now was modernised 1958 & the paint they put on then is still sticking GOOD.)

[Harryhawk]

No Dipping, it will strip primer and undercoat from places you will never get too. Cheers Harryhawk

[64studeavanti]

No Dipping, it will strip primer and undercoat from places you will never get too. Cheers Harryhawk

I will blast it. There are a couple of dustless blasting jobbers near by. Will check them out. I am worried about saving the serial tag as it is pristine!

[Mike Van Veghten]

You've started off in a great direction...
By that I mean you are doing a "body off" restoration rather than a "frame off". Pretty difficult to roll the body over and remove the frame..!

Mike

[sweetolbob]

I will blast it. There are a couple of dustless blasting jobbers near by. Will check them out. I am worried about saving the serial tag as it is pristine!

Be careful if you want to preserve the tag. Putting masking tape over it can pull off the black printing, bet you can guess how I know. If I were going to save the tag. I would take a piece of sheet metal larger than the tag, take a piece of heavy garbage bag and pop rivet the sheet metal over the plastic and the tag. When it's all done, remove the metal, weld up the holes and clean off the paint that remains close to the tag.

Otherwise you are gambling on preserving it if it's important to you.

Bob

[jbwhttail]

We used glass/water blasting on our GT and were thrilled with the result. As they blasted there was a primer sprayed on the parts and NO rust for over 6 months until we were ready to paint.

[64studeavanti]

Be careful if you want to preserve the tag. Putting masking tape over it can pull off the black printing, bet you can guess how I know. If I were going to save the tag. I would take a piece of sheet metal larger than the tag, take a piece of heavy garbage bag and pop rivet the sheet metal over the plastic and the tag. When it's all done, remove the metal, weld up the holes and clean off the paint that remains close to the tag.

Otherwise you are gambling on preserving it if it's important to you.

Bob

Great idea!

[64studeavanti]

We used glass/water blasting on our GT and were thrilled with the result. As they blasted there was a primer sprayed on the parts and NO rust for over 6 months until we were ready to paint.

That is what I wanted to hear. Thanks.

[swvalcon]

The dustless blasting is a good idea on the body and sheet metal but the frame I would blast with plain good old sand blasting. Strip the frame of as many parts as possible and blast those separate and have them blast the frame as good as possible. Thing is with a Stude frame it is a square tube and rust forms on the inside that you can't get to. Dripping will clean the inside but then you have bare metal in there that you can't get primer to. So either way is not perfect. Once the body and frame is blasted I would wire brush the frame with a wheel on a grinder and DA the body with at least 80 grit and clean and primer every thing good with epoxy primer. You can do body work right over the epoxy and they don't make much that will stick to metal much better.

[64studeavanti]

I was wondering about the inside of the frame. What did Studebaker do, if anything?

[tsenecal]

Eastwood makes a product that sprays through a tube and a spray nozzle inside the frame. You could check it out on their site.

[Jeffry Cassel]

I would use tha Eastwood stuff on the inside. Do what they said . pressure wash the heck out of the frame to try to get the crud out. Do not accept much rust as the frame was not all that sturdy to begin with. I did a frame off on a 56 Hawk years ago and was dismayed to find that it looked okay as far as the Studebaker chassis oiling system went, but there was a lot of rust behind the rear wheels. I cut out the bad and took off the bottom of the frame. Cut a big long chunk of 1/8" steel and welded it to the inside. Using the same stuff I replaced the bottom and it seems a lot stiffer than the original. There must be flexing at this point as well as wheels throwing mud and gravel into the frame. POR-15 the whole thing. The semi-gloss looks like the original paint and it won't come off.