When you’re looking for expert auto body restoration, it all starts with a perfectly clean slate.
That means removing all traces of paint, rust, fillers, and anything else that prevents completing the perfect restoration and paint job for your vehicle.
Professional auto body restorations may use media blasting (aka sandblasting) or dustless blasting to give you the results you are looking for.
Read on to learn more about the technique.
Media Blasting Technique Defined
Media blasting is a high-powered, efficient way of completely smoothing and cleaning off a variety of surfaces for the purpose of restoration, refinishing or painting.
Any media blasting technique involves using abrasives delivered by blasting them at the target surface at high speed.
Hard base surfaces that can be prepared for painting or restoration by sandblasting include concrete, wood, brick or metal.
The process is similar to treating a surface with sandpaper, only it’s much faster, more powerful and accurate. Media blasting allows large surface areas to be sanded down and prepped in a fraction of the time of hand sanding.
Popular Sandblasting Methods
Two popular types of media blasting use the power of either water or air.
Both methods are effective with positive results.
Water driven media blasting is primarily used for extremely rough surfaces like preparing concrete or a brick façade for paint or restoration work.
Air driven media blasting is most commonly used in auto body shops on car metal.
Another go-to method is known as vacuum or dustless blasting. This technique involves a blasting machine that comes equipped with vacuum suction, which sucks up spent abrasives and surface residue. This method significantly reduces airborne dust and/or residual materials, proving to be both cleaner and safer for the environment.
Media Blasting Materials
Depending on the type of item being media blasted and the media blasting method, some of the common materials in the mixture of “media” or abrasives used to remove surface rust or paint include:
- Silica
- Quartz
- Glass
- Metal
- Shells
Best Projects for Media Blasting
For ensuring the complete removal of all surface materials from a vehicle, especially those old classic car restorations, sandblasting is an excellent technique for removal of:
- Bondo or other filler
- Primer
- Rust
- Paint
- Graffiti
Conclusion
Media blasting is a provenly effective technique as part of a seamless, complete auto body or RV restoration.
In Sonoma County, trust your vehicle restoration projects to the experts at Downtown Autobody in Rohnert Park.
Our highly skilled restoration and painting technicians have the expertise to give you the high quality results you expect. Call for an estimate today.
