Back to Stainless for a painted car

[mpolzin]

Hi all,

I know a number of other have struggled with painted cars and a desire to get them back to stainless, so I thought I would share this one due to the fact that the results were pretty amazing. I purchased a painted Delorean several years ago and have been slowly working on the restoration the car. When the car was originally painted, a self-etching primer was used and the car was painted red, at some point later on the car was painted again; this time black. I attempted to strip the car using a chemical stripper as I had on another Delorean I had restored about 12 years ago, but the self-etching primer was a killer. I was looking at many hundreds of hours of effort, and it simply wasn't worth the effort.

I don't really like painted Deloreans (no offence to those who do, its just a personal preference) and didn't want to repaint the car so after a bit more research I stumbled upon soda blasting, which is similar to sand blasting but uses baking soda instead of sand as the blasting medium. Unlike sand blasting the baking soda does not damage rubber, plastic or glass so it really minimizes the amount or prep work. I should however note that it can damage fiberglass so care needs to be taken where fiberglass is exposed if soda blasting is being done nearby. Covering fiberglass with duct tape seems to do it.

I found a local company called Superior Polymer that was able to come out and do it and the price was reasonable, so I decided to give it a try. They used the soda blasting in home restorations after fires, and had never done a car before but were willing to give it try. The results were pretty amazing, and the car was completed in half of a day. Here is a video of the drivers side front quarter panel being soda blasted.

http://deloreanrestoration.blogspot.com/2015/04/back-to-stainless.html (blog post with video)

(Standalone video on YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFDQd-Imwo

I have to say the results were impressive. Even the insides of the doors hand been painted on this car, and the soda was able to easily get the paint out of any nooks and crannies. It would be quite difficult for anyone to even know that this car had ever been painted. Rather than stripping paint for hundreds of hours I will be able to work on more important items on the car, and to be quite honest I would never strip a car myself again.

Prep work is necessary because the medium does get all over the place. I removed the T-Panel and rear quarters so they could be done off the car and minimize the amount of medium that would get into the engine compartment. Because I needed to do the insides of the doors and the interior was toast on the car I just wrapped the dash area in plastic and called it good. This process does need to be done outside, because everything within 100 feet of the car will have some soda dust on it -- it literally gets everywhere, a small price to pay in my opinion, after a good rain the mess was cleaned up. We did also lay plastic under the car and our 20 or so feet to catch most of the medium and paint could be rolled up in the plastic and disposed of.

I have lots more video of the process if folks are interested. I just posted the one 10 minute segment so people could see how it works.

Mike

[Timebender]

Wow that makes fast work of it!
Reminds me of the scene from the end of "One Froggy Evening" with Michigan J. Frog, where the workman is using a disintegrator to get rid of a building..

http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/54247.gif

[Farrar]

That's pretty awesome! Are you going to re-grain the metal or will you stay with the "matte finish"? :)

[mpolzin]

That's pretty awesome! Are you going to re-grain the metal or will you stay with the "matte finish"? :)

The grain is still there, the reason is looks like is has a matte finish is because of the dust the settles out from the baking soda, once the car was wiped down it was shiny. The stainless is actually in very nice shape and will need minimal re-graining, really only in areas that were scuffed previous to the paint being applied. The baking soda is not abrasive, so it does no damage to the stainless.

[mpolzin]

Wow that makes fast work of it!
Reminds me of the scene from the end of "One Froggy Evening" with Michigan J. Frog, where the workman is using a disintegrator to get rid of a building..

http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/54247.gif

The tools looks pretty similar, except that this one just disintegrates paint!

[DavidProehl]

Never would have guessed this was possible to do without damage, but I had never heard of soda blasting before. Amazing. Nicely done!

[ccurzio]

That was incredibly satisfying to watch. I stayed with it from beginning to end.

I would love to not be an idiot and understand how this can strip paint so easily yet not damage rubber or plastic at all.

[Farrar]

I would love to not be an idiot and understand how this can strip paint so easily yet not damage rubber or plastic at all.

The only thing I've managed to find on the Internet is that it is classified as a "soft abrasive." Seems like a contradiction in terms, but there you have it.

In fact, it seems to be so soft that some websites I looked at caution people that it may only remove a small layer of surface rust, and the people blasting parts for rust removal may wish to use a harsher medium if they want to get further.

Fascinating...

[burch]

That is awesome. Really fun to watch :)

[Dangermouse]

In my work life I have seen soda blasting, and even dry-ice blasting, used to remove material build up on ceramic insulators. Walnut shells are used to remove even concrete from these insulators (think large power pole cable insulators).

Never thought to use them to remove paint on a car.

Mike, if you don't mind me asking, what would they charge for this sort of thing?

[ccurzio]

The only thing I've managed to find on the Internet is that it is classified as a "soft abrasive." Seems like a contradiction in terms, but there you have it.

In fact, it seems to be so soft that some websites I looked at caution people that it may only remove a small layer of surface rust, and the people blasting parts for rust removal may wish to use a harsher medium if they want to get further.

Fascinating...

That's the weird thing though. You'd think that it would take a "harder" abrasive to remove paint on ANYTHING beyond the absolute shittiest of shitty Maaco jobs. How bizarre.

Thanks for the info though. Fascinating indeed. :)


Walnut shells are used to remove even concrete from these insulators (think large power pole cable insulators).

I use walnut shell sponges to clean and polish my Cuisinart anodized cookware!

[leroylem]

Son-in-Law has a Corvette Restoration Shop---"Hedges Corvette"---we soda blast the fiberglass bodies---works great---if you are careful no damage at all to the fiberglass---great also to strip paint from metal cars, but it won,t remove rust very well---need to sand blast.
Leroy

[mpolzin]

In my work life I have seen soda blasting, and even dry-ice blasting, used to remove material build up on ceramic insulators. Walnut shells are used to remove even concrete from these insulators (think large power pole cable insulators).

Never thought to use them to remove paint on a car.

Mike, if you don't mind me asking, what would they charge for this sort of thing?

The cost was $1000 everything included, it could have been cheaper if I would have brought to the car to them versus them coming to me to do the job. Considering the high cost of Delorean parts, and the value of my time I felt like that the cost was very reasonable.

[mpolzin]

That's the weird thing though. You'd think that it would take a "harder" abrasive to remove paint on ANYTHING beyond the absolute shittiest of shitty Maaco jobs. How bizarre.

Thanks for the info though. Fascinating indeed. :)



I use walnut shell sponges to clean and polish my Cuisinart anodized cookware!

I can't say that I completely understand it either, but my research indicated that soda blasting was pretty common in automotive restoration for removing paint, and is used because it does not damage the metal. I won't pretend to understand exactly why it pulls the paint without damaging other stuff, but with the results I achieved with this I can honestly say I would never go back to trying this by hand using chemicals... for my health and for my sanity!

Mike

[Jimmyvonviggle]

I have used it on an old car. Another advantage is it doesn't create the same amount of heat when stripping so it doesn't warp panels.

[OverlandMan]

This process does need to be done outside, because everything within 100 feet of the car will have some soda dust on it -- it literally gets everywhere, a small price to pay in my opinion, after a good rain the mess was cleaned up. We did also lay plastic under the car and our 20 or so feet to catch most of the medium and paint could be rolled up in the plastic and disposed of.
Mike

Thanks for sharing Mike. The results look like they speak for themselves. What is a soda bead? Is it toxic? Biodegradable? Nuclear waste bi-product? :D


That's the weird thing though. You'd think that it would take a "harder" abrasive to remove paint on ANYTHING beyond the absolute shittiest of shitty Maaco jobs. How bizarre.

I had a shitty Maaco paint job on my first car. It started flaking off after 2 weeks with a power washer.

[Dangermouse]

Thanks for sharing Mike. The results look like they speak for themselves. What is a soda bead? Is it toxic? Biodegradable? Nuclear waste bi-product? :D


It's sodium bicarbonate - baking soda

[mpolzin]

Thanks for sharing Mike. The results look like they speak for themselves. What is a soda bead? Is it toxic? Biodegradable? Nuclear waste bi-product? :D


I had a shitty Maaco paint job on my first car. It started flaking off after 2 weeks with a power washer.

Its just baking soda, the same stuff used to bake cookies, except that they use 50 lb. bags of the stuff to load the hopper on the machine. It is completely non-toxic and biodegradable. It did yellow my grass a bit right along the edge of the driveway where the rain sort of washed the stuff in larger quantities, but there was no long term impact.

[TripleZeroFilms]

I have lots more video of the process if folks are interested. I just posted the one 10 minute segment so people could see how it works.

Mike

As my car is painted red as well, and I have been looking in to having this very thing done to it, I for one would love to see more video of the process and/or prep work done to the car. :)

[DavidProehl]

Its just baking soda, the same stuff used to bake cookies, except that they use 50 lb. bags of the stuff to load the hopper on the machine. It is completely non-toxic and biodegradable. It did yellow my grass a bit right along the edge of the driveway where the rain sort of washed the stuff in larger quantities, but there was no long term impact.

I feel like there was a missed opportunity here to add a drum of vinegar to the mix. Now that is a video I'd like to see! ;)

[Bruce Johnson]

Watch Edd do it to the Amphicar. Looks like this process is so good it cuts through loads of thick bondo!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxaQQEQpEt4

[DMCMW Dave]

I have a customer planning to strip a car using frozen CO2 blasting. Anyone tried that?

I'm sure it's astronomically expensive.

[OverlandMan]

It's sodium bicarbonate - baking soda

Well no kidding... that's even cooler! You learn something every day!

[Silverbullet]

I have a customer planning to strip a car using frozen CO2 blasting. Anyone tried that?

I'm sure it's astronomically expensive.

Frozen CO2??? It is commonly known as... Dry Ice... and the cool part is, there in no clean up... they use it in houses, nothing to sweep up...

Craig

[Kenny_Z]

That was interesting to watch. I always heard that soda blasting leaves a texture in the metal so I decided against it to strip Red. Looks like that would have been a lot faster.

[DMCMW Dave]

Frozen CO2??? It is commonly known as... Dry Ice... and the cool part is, there in no clean up... they use it in houses, nothing to sweep up...

Craig

Update on this one for the archives. . .- Don't do the CO2 blast. It is great at removing the paint, unfortunately it leaves lots of tiny dents in the metal. Looks like the panel was in a hailstorm of tiny hail. I'm sure it's a great process on thicker metal, but not on DMC gauge stainless.

[David T]

Update on this one for the archives. . .- Don't do the CO2 blast. It is great at removing the paint, unfortunately it leaves lots of tiny dents in the metal. Looks like the panel was in a hailstorm of tiny hail. I'm sure it's a great process on thicker metal, but not on DMC gauge stainless.

I guess it depends on how it is done. This process is used on aircraft. It makes no mess and uses no chemicals so it doesn't affect the metal. Aluminum is softer than S/S and is much thinner than the Delorean's 16 gauge. It is expensive.

[uhhair]

Would have loved to known about this soda blasting when I stripped my car, looks way less time-intensive.

Any idea the cost of this?