Safely Clean Metal Without Damaging Surrounding Paint
When you’re doing a full blown frame-off restoration it isn’t a big deal to use a big pressure blaster to clean off any and all paints, rust, and coatings. But if you’re trying to preserve an original paint car or even just stop some rust spots in your daily driver you might want to minimize the damage to the surrounding paint while still cleaning the metal of rust. You may be able to really carefully sand the area with an abrasive sander or a chemical rust stripper but you still risk damaging the paint around it.
Media blasting is one of the best ways to remove rust and get perfectly clean metal. One of the best ways to keep centralize blasting to a small area or hard to reach spot is by using a Speed Blaster with the specialized spot blaster recovery kit. This system allows you to put a formed rubber tip that matches the area you’re blasting.
First install the recovery bag and associated spot blasting tip. Then press the tip tightly against the surface. This is important because the seal against the metal must be tight so blasting media can’t escape and damage the surrounding areas.
You can then pull the trigger on the blaster. A short blast of only a few seconds should remove light rust. You can move the blaster slightly to another area or to enlarge the blasted area. The recovered media can then be put back in the reservoir and used again. If you see large pieces of paint or rust in the recovery bag we suggest sifting the media before reusing it.
The result is clean metal with no major damage to the surrounding areas. You can also remove the recovery system and blast larger areas. The best part about the recovery system with the speed blaster is the limited mess. Unlike media blasting with a pressure blaster you will have little to no media dust or residue around the shop so you can do it inside if your project isn’t mobile.
To see all of our media blasters and accessories visit our Media Blasting Inventory HERE.