Nickel Slag Media - unibody underside 220S

This is a good example of a very solid unibody floorpan that had surface rust underneath. The suspension was not being removed on this 58K mile vehicle so after removing many components, I very aggressively masked off the wire harness and other areas you would not want sand to enter.

Since this vehicle had only two areas of rust and they were both on sheet metal, one being the battery tray area which gets very deep yet small acid corrosion pitting, I chose to use nickel slag as it's a smaller media to start with yet still very aggressive and would not tear up the sheet metal of the engine bay.

After blasting, any factory welding slag is always removed with a chisel and grinder, then all surfaces are wire burnished and body seams resealed prior to painting, as was done originally.

Copper Slag Media - pre-welding body

As with most severely rusted vehicles, this one needed initial blasting prior to fabrications and welding. This body had to remain on the frame during the welding process to insure proper alignments....... and because there was no strength in it to remove it until it was welded back up.

The dash is not being disassembled so it was all double masked to insure that no media went where it was not welcome.

I first blasted the underside of the floor and the frame to break down the size of this aggressive media, then blasted the inside surfaces of the vehicle without causing damage to the smooth surface of the stamped floor and body skeleton.

After blasting all sheetmetal surfaces are burnished with a wire brush to remove the work hardened crystallized surface of the steel to promote optimum adhesion of the epoxy primers. The floor is completely primed prior to welding as welding is highly corrosive to bare steel..... and bare lungs as well.

Copper Slag Media - pre-welding floor

All of the substructure and adjacent panel welding was done prior to media blasting so that these areas could be epoxy primed before the finish floor panels were welded in creating boxed areas.

Note that all the surfaces are wire polished to further promote adhesion. After seeing cars driven after restorations and having done several test over the years, there is an appreciable difference in adhesion spraying over blasted steel surfaces with and without the wire wheel burnishing.

Again, the dash and column was thoroughly double masked to keep the media out........ just like a closed door session of congress.

Glass Beads

Aluminium castings typically get medium glass beaded since it is a much smaller, less aggressive softer media. If they are cosmetic pieces not getting painted, then they may get blasted with fine glass beads which leaves the pieces with quite a sheen.

All iron and steel, castings and forgings get medium glass beaded and inspected for damage, cracks and low bone density... just kidding on the last one.