Hello, I have a 1969 SS Camaro that I have had for almost 20 years. The car runs great but its in need of restoration now. It was originally a North Carolina car and has a lot of rust on the floorboard. For years I have managed to patch up the floorboard, but I have kids now and I'm worried about the floorboard giving away under them. I just started disassembling the car to restore all the metal. My question is which is better sandblasting or getting it chemically dipped? Which one is more expensive? Also how much prep do you have to do for either. I know you have to get the car down to bare metal only, but do you have to sand any of the paint off first. I have never restored a car before, so I know I'm probably going to have a lot more questions. Thanks for any input.

 

Neither!
Sand blasting is a bad idea for panels that show. Stay in one place just a little too long, and the sand will build enough heat to will warp the panel, leaving you with divots.
Chemical stripping is just a plain old mess. Plus you then want to make sure the metal is good and clean and neutralized so you don't have any paint compatibility issues.
A couple of options are either plastic media blasting, or soda blasting (baking, not soda pop). Soda is supposed to be a better way, because it neutralizes the metal as it goes. I've had a Vette plastic media blasted. It took it down to the primer, then it bounced off the glass body panels from there. I haven't had a metal body done for comparison sake, so it could take it down closer to bare metal. Either way you go, you'll have some finish sanding to do. And blasting won't remove bondo, if the car has any.

 

I agree with camaro69. I had mine soda/media blasted. Did a fab job. Cost me $500. I took the front end apart and pulled the motor and all the wiring. Basically I took it down to the barebones and then had it hauled away but thats all we did. Check out the 1st page or 2 of my project thread and you will see what mine looked like after the blasting.

https://camaroforums.com/forum/67-69-projects-106/my-69-camaro-project-18688/

 

media blasting and chemical dipping are both great options, but they both have their pros and cons

for the average guy, media blasting is the best option though