Sand/shot blasting London and South east?

[AndyL]

Does anyone have any recommendations for fairly priced shot blasters relatively near London, or at least within reasonable distance?

I used to use Abbey blasting in Waltham Abbey, but their prices seem to have gone skywards, plus they no longer do complete body shells.

Andy

[Michael]

Not done it myself, but thinking about it logically and seeing what I have watched on telly, would a acid dip not be better?

Sand is only going to leave the metal with a texture finish?

[AndyL]

I've had items shot-peened before. It leaves it with a surface that is perfect for putting primer coats on, as you need a textured surface for initial coats, especially if your using an epoxy primer.

Have the shell dipped is another method, but it does tend to work out more expensive, and no real benefit for a single skinned item.

[Peel replica, Steve Fisk]

http://www.rfiscreening.co.uk Maybe to far out but give them a ring , they have done work for me before

[Big Al]

Bit anti blasting bodyshells, unless present or know that others say they are OK. I have seen a few nasty results where the pressure has been turned up and the panelling stretched and damaged. I think this is why dipping become fashionable. But dipping can leave you with some gaping holes and no old structure to inspect to effect an accurate repair. Its all a bit tricky to know really. So much easier when there were local pet people doing these things.

[richard]

Well maybe a floor but I would never again have a whole body blasted . Think we've had this one before , okay like Al says if the blaster has history but my Trojan came back rippled and with hundreds of depressions but not a deep as the one I suffered  funnily enough it didn't remove much metal as it hadn't been too bad !

[AndyL]

If they rippled the shell, that is a sign they used too much pressure in an attempt to speed up the job. Sand blasting is just another form of abrasive.

RFI is one of the companies I contacted, and I spoke with the chap and was impressed with his advice. As they're in Ware, not too far from me. So I think I'll probably go with them.

My car sat in a poor environment for many years, the underside is covered in surface rust, and although I can sand a lot of this back, it's difficult to get into the nooks and crannies.

[Peel replica, Steve Fisk]

Just get all the tight spots blasted and the big pannels that you can get at do yourself with a paint and rust stripping attachment on your grinder , it won't have any problems with that

[AndyL]

Regarding dipping, there are two companies I have looked at. Surface processing Ltd and Envirostrip. they both offer a similar service, paint removal, then rust removal. SPL also offer E-coating, an electrolytic paint deposition process, but it's far from cheap.

Envirostrip will paint the body in an epoxy primer, but unlike e-coating that won't get inside any box sections and between flanges. The Isetta is single skinned apart from the door, so less of a disadvantage perhaps.

From what I've observed of the process, it only removes rust, not good metal. If your shell is badly rusted, then it's likely to come out with perforations, but my shell isn't in that category. It was mainly the floor and a few small areas that had corroded to the point of holes. The floor is being replaced, and the remaining areas will be made good.

The majority of rust is just scaly type from years sitting in a damp environment. Easy to clean off with shot peening or dipping, but can be very involved when trying to sand it off.