Seams restoration, Nitromorse? Sand Blast?

[cubensis]

Ok so same as everyone else the winter has beaten up my van and i have bubbles on seams. I plan to rustoleum bottom half of van over easter and am mentally preparing the job now. Heres what i would like to do hyperthetically!

Completley remove all paint from bottom half of van, this way i know exactly where the problem areas are, tidy up any patches of rust, at the same time empty all the seams of anything that in there (seam sealent/rust/filler) and rust treat, re seam seal, rustoleum over the top for a perfect smooth finish with me knowing exaactly what is hapening on the lower half of the van!

Would it be best to do with a sandblaster? (do i just need a pressure wassure that has sandblasting functionality?) / Nitromorse? (or something industrial thats cheaper!) / sandpaper? / Drill attachment of some sort?

Does this seem a bit over the top? The alternative of course is the more conventional sand the van so its keyed patch up anything i see on the way and sort seams as stated above, i just feel it could be done more thorough!

Thanks for any advise as ever!

[weldore]

very interesting thread,as this will be my job till the warmer weather and i can paint it...interested in replies too

[CovKid]

You can buy a recycling grit blaster around the £30 mark on ebay. It has a rubber nozzle and recycles the grit so you don't use as much. As always with seams, getting behind them helps too.

[fix]

I dont think sand blasting will pull the amount of paint of you would hope,ive sand blasted before and its worked ok but not great.

Nitromorse should get the paint off easily with a few applications,or i suppose you could try both methods..

[dickspanner]

If you look at my posts on my crewcab, I sand blasted all my seams on my crewcab. This got rid of all paint, filler, seam filler, rust the lot. However this is an aggressive course of action. The problems this will cause is as follows:-

Although you will remove all problems whay you will create is a very deep ridge in you paint work. Which when you first do the job it looks fantastic, but then you try and reinstate the paintwork it is a lot of hard work to get a flat untampared-with finish. This is easy to deal with but takes time and effort as you have to build the paint thickness back up over several coats etc. I am not saying it can not be done, but if you want a really good finish be prepared to put many man hours into it.

Getting rid of rust is a difficult job as once metal starts returning back to its natural state it is hard to control. There are a lot of products that claim to do this and that etc but few work and the ones that do work require the manhours to make it look as good as new.

Be prepared for a lot of hard work and management of the problem once you start tacking the problem. When I shot blasted my crewcab, I ended up taking it back to a bare shell, I purchase some rust preventer in two pack form but it was chuffin expensive, I then sprayed the cab with 3 coats of super etch two pack the high build primer, and areas where I had shot blast still showed ridges.

Good look with your attemps.

In relation to equiptment, like said you can get shot blast guns which do small areas and recycle you shot/sand/bead, these can be purchased from the likes of screwfix or machine mart, or you can go for open type shot bast guns. You can also go for hiring someone to come round your place and do all the shot blasting for you.

It is best using a dry shot blast technique as you will not be wetting the bare surface etc.

Dickspanner

[bigherb]

I agree with dickspanner sand blasting is the best way to rid the tin worm. spot blast guns are very effective on small areas but hard work on seams, The most effective DIY one I've used is this one, its the only one that gives a continuous stream of sand, other types it comes out in spurts.

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... uctid=9212" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The only problem is the sand goes everywhere, best to do it on a large plastic sheet and cover any orifices on the van with masking tape. If you use sand because of the silica content you will need a good face mask and a full face shield.
If the paint is good I would leave it on. VW applied some pretty good primers one of the reasons the vans are still around, it is very hard to replicate those paints and more importantly the conditions they where applied in.

[jaylo264]

lot of hassle , blasting -- i did my seams , carefully like , with a 0.8 mm cutting disc to open up, then brass wire brush on drill, then rust treat , etch prime etc.
I`ve used evostik metal stickum from a gun to refill the seams , excellent adhesion,as i couldnt find tiger or similar anywhere. Red oxide over that , then prime again + paint .
"seams" to work ok .
jaylo

[dickspanner]

Yes we have three thypes of sand blasting equiptment, a spot gun, a sealy unit like posted and a pressurized tank system. The three have there good points and bad points.

We also have an air fed mask, which is essential for open type shot blasting. We generally use kiln dried sand from the likes of B&Q.

You will end up with sand in every orifice, you will removing sand from your ears, nose, mouth, a*** everything. We have a waterproof suit which we tape up all ends and wear a air fed mask but you still end up with crunch teeth. It is part of the whole experiance of sand blasting.

Dickspanner

[cubensis]

Great response everyone!

I think, when it comes to the seams i will avoid sandblasting, i would only really get a sand blaster if i could also take of large areas of paint and seeing as there not really designed for this i think i`ll just use a drill mountable wire brush (smallest i can buy) and work it in the seams, it seems whatever way its done its hard work! I also dont have a drive so looks like the sand blasting option is just gonna get out of hand!So what ill do is:
1) Wire brush right down the seam removing as much as i can
2) If needed use circular disc on dremel / stanley knife, anything that`ll get the crap out
3) lightly heat / dry out
4) vactan, remove original vactan and vactan again (hopefully for maximum penetration (insert joke here))
5) seam seal
6) rustoleum (after hand sanding back the hole bottom half of the van and feathering into the seals)

3 more questions on this!
1) which would be best for the seams? sikaflex (caulk gun), seam sealent (caulk gun) or a tin of brushable seam sealant (paint brush)?
2) Any advice on speeding up the sanding process?
3) Does anybody know of nitromorse equivilant thats cheaper?

Thanks! best forum ever!

[CovKid]

It is part of the whole experiance of sand blasting. Dickspanner

Can vouch for that! Many many years ago I did a few days of industrial blasting in a dutch ship out at sea, stripping paint from the decks and repainting. The poor guy doing the blasting was in a complete leather suit - hot and awful. Even on sweeping up, the air was thick with dust and grit. The whole ship REEKED of diesel too (like the paraffin in 'Three Men In A boat book), all you could smell was diesel. The food tasted of diesel, the beer tasted of diesel, wherever you went, even in the cabins, and the drone of the engines was a nighmare. Most terrible experience I think I've ever had.

But, these small hand units are fine - no comparision. I think I'd use a combination of that, wire brush in a drill and rust remover gel with final coat of vactan. Thats about as good as you'll get other than replacing everything.

[bennwedge]

It's no good just treating and removing rust from the exterior body , you'll find the rust creeping back in no time. You have to treat the back side of the seams as well ( under arches etc) this is painstakingly slow as I've found that you have to remove some of the factory rubber coating underneath the arches as the water has got in from cracks due to age, then you have to build up the rubber coating to form a nice water tight seal once again.

[b1llyf1sh]

Mangers do a paint and varnish remover which is the equivalent of Nitromors but half the price, and available in smaller quantities so you don't need to buy a gallon tin if you won't need that much. Best place to get it is your local Johnstones Leyland decorators centre as they are the company that make it.

[fix]

I must have a pretty poor sand blaster as i found it rubbish! I better invest in propper equipment

[bennwedge]

I used upol brushable seam sealer in a tin , 4coats, laying it on nice and thick each time ( about 2mm) and then a few coats of underbody compound to finish.

[pmulcahy]

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... uctid=9212" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ok ive just bought one of these off ebay 45 quid. I cant see any other way of attacking that rust on the front apron and in dodgey areas. Plus im really lazy and always look for the easiest method no matter what the cost.