1992 Kansas Highway Patrol SSP

[1988Bullitt]

Originally Posted by NoDrama43

The only thing I have heard about the soda blasting system is that you need to be sure and flush everything very well and not leave any of the soda residue in the cracks and crevices anywhere.

Yeah, that is the same thing I heard. All body plugs had already been removed and some of the seam sealer to let all of the body and bracing drain just like if it where being e-coated. I had washed the shell previously, then I did the following to clean and prep the shell this time:

Air blow at the soda blasting shop, he had a 200 psi 1 inch air hose that blew away (literally) any air blower I had, lol. We blew out every nook and cranny including the frame rails, wheel arches, roof braces, cowl, floors, etc.

It then when for a 50 mile cruise on an open trailer down the highway at 70-75mph. Saturday I shop-vac’ed any little piles of soda I could find and blew everything out again with my puny 120psi air gun.

Then I had a buddy come over that owed me a favor and we got the hose out and washed everything, flooded the rear quarters, washed out the roof rails, floor pans, bracing, frame rails, rockers, doors, etc. We then scuffed the whole car with scotchbrite red scuff pads and 320 sand paper. Then washed everything above again with hot dish soap saturated water. After the final rinse we towel dried everything, and blew air into every pinch weld, brace, and nook to get any remaining water out, then set it in the 90 degree sun for 5 hours (perfect day to wash a shell)

Then I rolled the car back in the shop, scuffed a few small spots that flash rusted on me and wiped the whole car down with Dupont Final clean. Pictures are worth a thousand words but they definitely did not show all the steps between blasting and priming.