I want to put a new paint job on my car, I am going to be painting it the 2004 Grand Am Metallic Orange, but I want to bead blast. Is this a safe venture or is there a better way to "blast" the car? My intention is to paint the car whole (as opposed to parting it and then reassembling it). I heard that sand blasting isn't the safest way to go because of pits being left.

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Coupe85 (with an 84 2M4 se)
No Longer Fieroless
1984 2M4 SE - Now in my possesion
1985 Sport Coupe - Sold to Fierobob
1988 Formula - Sold to fellow PFFer

I wouldn't use any blasting techniques. Sandpaper is the best way to go because the pressure from the blasting will distort the plastic and fiberglass.

Mark

I Fiero has plastic panels. No way, unless you want to fill in or smooth out the whole car. NO they don't go along!!!!!!!!

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Bobby from NW Indiana
86 Fiero GT, Looking to ad a 93 Northstar soon
thespeedshop@sbcglobal.net

Ok, thanks guys!

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Coupe85 *** No Longer Fieroless with an 84 SE 2M4*** 1984 2M4 SE - Now in my possesion***1985 Sport Coupe - Sold to Fierobob (Twin Lakes Fiberglass)***1988 Formula - Sold to fellow PFFer

There is a new blasting process that uses baking soda as the blast media. It is so fine that it does not generate heat or ripple the underlying material. The soda is so fine that it can remove one layer of paint at a time and also has the neat feature in that it is water soluable. So after they are done blasting all you need to do is wash the car and all the soda dissolves and is washed away. You might ckeck to see if anyone in your area is using this process and check it out.

Joe Sokol
85 SE 5 Speed 2.8
88 Formula/GT 5 Speed 4.9 Caddy

Man..

Ive been told to beadblast, ive been told to chemstrip, ive been told to sand, ive been told to razor...

Is there a definitive, "this is the best method, hands down, no doubt about it" method?

I'd really prefer if i didnt have to sand thru 10layers of paint just to get to the plastic...

bakin soda eh? that'd look kinda funny.. comin out of the super market with like... 60kg of baking soda

I think you could fill your costco commitments right there!

James Z

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When we rebuilt our fiero we had the bumpers and door skins media blasted, and we just wet-sanded the front fenders.

Front bumper: http://fiero.ptszone.com/pictures/Ninth%20Dump/DCP02271.JPG
http://fiero.ptszone.com/pictures/Ninth%20Dump/DCP02272.JPG

Rear bumper: http://fiero.ptszone.com/pictures/Ninth%20Dump/DCP02280.JPG

Door skins: http://fiero.ptszone.com/pictures/Ninth%20Dump/DCP02281.JPG

Came out great, the place that blasted it put the inital black primer on it and we did more work on them. Like the front bumper was pretty beat up on the bottom so we filled the gouges with filler and sanded it smooth as well as a few low spots.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't baking soda what's used in dry powder fire extinguishers? You should see what that stuff does to an engine. Corrodes everything. It's dang near impossible to get it all off, unless the operation may include some method of capturing it as it's blasted.

No........you got your powders mixed up. Baking soda is not caustic. It is an alkaline and used to neutralize acid.

Best bet on a Fiero. Sand it!

Phil

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87 FIERO GT 2.8 5spd

GM auto tech for 27 years. Specializing in electrical and computer problems. Now on workers comp. and it looks like I will be unable to return to work as a tech.

Hello,

Baking Soda Blasting is not new, it's been around for a few years (mid 90's). I had an 89 S-Blazer blasted with baking soda and it did a good job. Another benefit to baking soda is you don't have to remove trim, the soda doesn't harm anything. The downside, while technically it will dissolve in water, it was probably a good 2 years my Blazer would weep soda out of all the crevases/window cracks ect. Rest assured it wasn't a case of lazy washing, we tried and tried but she'd always have white streaking. I can imagine in a Fiero it would probably be forever due to the nature of the panels/trim. Good luck on what you chose.

The problem with using blasting techniques on the Fiero panels is that the rigid panels are made from material that is softer than the paint the factory put over it. When sanding you can very easily control the pressure and technique so that you minimize the amount of through-sanding you do into the base material. Blasting on the other hand is very difficult to control and relies on the substrate being much harder than the overcoat, or paint. A person blasting will quickly put many craters and divots in the base material as the blasting media eats through the hard paint and into the softer substrate.

Besides, the factory paint makes a good bonding medium if it's prepped correctly.

JazzMan

Ok so it sounds like sanding is the most efficient way to do the prep work. What about removing the luggage rack and trim pieces? Is this a tough job or is it fairly simple? Thanks in advance.

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Coupe85 *** No Longer Fieroless with an 84 SE 2M4*** 1984 2M4 SE - Now in my possesion***1985 Sport Coupe - Sold to Fierobob (Twin Lakes Fiberglass)***1988 Formula - Sold to fellow PFFer

hmm acid dippin a peice of plastic

YAY thats a great IDEA

Corvette guys all the time get them blasted. Friends of mine all do them with walnut shells. It wont damage the plastic panels and takes off all the paint and primer. Anything else may damage it. Call around for blasters in your area. You can always let them do a test panel for you to check first. They also did that on a Vette on TV they restored. The ones ive gotten to repaint after blasting just needed DA'd and primered.

Acid dip would get it REALLY clean. you would also lighten the car

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'86 Fiero GT

www.KylesFiero.tk

quote Originally posted by SplineZ: Man.. Ive been told to beadblast, ive been told to chemstrip, ive been told to sand, ive been told to razor... Is there a definitive, "this is the best method, hands down, no doubt about it" method? I'd really prefer if i didnt have to sand thru 10layers of paint just to get to the plastic... bakin soda eh? that'd look kinda funny.. comin out of the super market with like... 60kg of baking soda I think you could fill your costco commitments right there! James Z

!0 lays of paint? And what is razor removal?

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Bobby from NW Indiana
86 Fiero GT, Looking to ad a 93 Northstar soon
thespeedshop@sbcglobal.net

quote Originally posted by fierofool: Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't baking soda what's used in dry powder fire extinguishers? You should see what that stuff does to an engine. Corrodes everything. It's dang near impossible to get it all off, unless the operation may include some method of capturing it as it's blasted.

Baking soda is the main ingredient used in certain dry chemical fire extinguishers....only B-C rated units, and not all of those have the sodium bicarbonate. Baking soda is not corrosive, as you are thinking. The stuff you are referring to is the A-B-C rated dry chemical, which has a mono-ammonium phosphate base. That's the corrosive stuff and not baking soda.

If baking soda does a good job in blasting, it won't hurt the car.

Mark
Fire Protection Specialist
Interstate Fire Protection
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Custom Auto Painting

[This message has been edited by Firefox (edited 01-31-2004).]

Mar-hyde does make a chemical stripper specifically for plastic body panels... can't remember the product number but on the can it even has a picture of the front of a fiero.

-Edit- Ah, here we go http://www.bondo-online.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=623

[This message has been edited by Shadow_Wolf (edited 02-01-2004).]

quote Originally posted by Shadow_Wolf: Mar-hyde does make a chemical stripper specifically for plastic body panels... can't remember the product number but on the can it even has a picture of the front of a fiero. -Edit- Ah, here we go http://www.bondo-online.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=623

Thanks for this but all I see is a pic of a can. I don't have a pdf reader so I can't see the MSDS. Can you post the info on the MSDS for us? Would be greatly appreciated!

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Coupe85 *** No Longer Fieroless with an 84 SE 2M4*** 1984 2M4 SE - Now in my possesion***1985 Sport Coupe - Sold to Fierobob (Twin Lakes Fiberglass)***1988 Formula - Sold to fellow PFFer

Well... some of it explains a few people I know...

Teratogenicity (risk of malformation in an unborn fetus):
Reproductive Toxicity (risk of sterility):
Mutagenicity (risk of heritable genetic effects): Methylene chloride may be considered a weak mutagen based on animal tests. Toluene is a known mutagen.
Proposition 65: WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

quote Originally posted by watts: Well... some of it explains a few people I know... Teratogenicity (risk of malformation in an unborn fetus): Reproductive Toxicity (risk of sterility): Mutagenicity (risk of heritable genetic effects): Methylene chloride may be considered a weak mutagen based on animal tests. Toluene is a known mutagen. Proposition 65: WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

OK, but is it safe to use.... :P

Since we are on this topic of the best sandblasting.... whats the best way to clean up corroded and peeling clear coat tech4 rims?

I tried the acid spray from a detailing shop, cleared some off, tried some aircraft paint remover but it didnt remove much of the old clearcoat, tried finesanding, but would estimate that would take me another 20-30 years to complete.. any way to sandblast? and if so, best stuff to sandblast with?

Thanks

See if you can find a antique shop where they restore brass and other metals and tell them you need the rims bead blasted it cost me around 30$ to get it done locally and they came back bare aluminum. I think that would be the easiest and best route to go.

quote Originally posted by freedog81: See if you can find a antique shop where they restore brass and other metals and tell them you need the rims bead blasted it cost me around 30$ to get it done locally and they came back bare aluminum. I think that would be the easiest and best route to go.

Thanks freedog81!! gave you a positive

I checked with some sandblaster shops here, but I never thought to check with any auto restorers

10 might be exagerating, but i can assure you there is atleast 5

Using a razor blade to peel the **** off..

James Z

quote Originally posted by GSXRBOBBY: !0 lays of paint? And what is razor removal?