The underside of a vehicle before and after being blasted by WozBuilt.
A car fender being wet blasted.
Wet abrasive blasting is the perfect choice to eliminate paint, primer, body filler, warping, rust, undercoating’s, linex and dust.
WozBuilt can blast any solid substrate including stripping plastic and fiberglass / SMC (sheet molding compound). We can remove the paint on boats, corvettes etc. down to the gel coat so we can tell our customers that it will be as straight as it was from factory because that is where you will be starting from!
No Warping: The water in the wet abrasive blasting process reduces friction and heat, which means your vehicle or equipment will not warp or bend, unlike using other blasting methods. We know that normal industrial dry blasters are way too big and aggressive to do the job right without damage to the rusty, already thin sheet metal. Warpage doesn’t necessarily come from just the heat of sandblasting, it can happen just by using too much air volume or being too close to a weak area. Even at 60 psi with no abrasive, in the wrong area, too close to the panel or if the panel is week from previous repairs it can be warped.
WozBuilt has also found out through 30 + years of experience in restoring priceless, classic vehicles the damage which can be caused by warpage. Being a Red Seal Journeyman and an auto body mechanic, Robert Wozney can see warpage and imperfections from a mile away.
Clean and Efficient: Unlike the mess left by chemical stripping, sanding, or the damage to your vehicle caused with sandblasting, wet abrasive blasting is easy to clean up. It also easily gets around any rivets or vents and other hard to sand areas leaving you with a perfect clean surface prep ready for wet on wet epoxy. It saves you time and money and the job will turn out perfect every time with no sand scratches or grinder marks and no profile sanding. Your turn around time is way higher and you can have the vehicles repainted in a few days instead of weeks.
Vehicle Price Guide – For a guide to vehicle blasting costs check out our price guide. Every situation is different, but often the costs can decrease if parts are bundled.
WozBuilt is completely mobile: We can blast at almost any location. Wet abrasive blasting allows us to come to the project and blast where you otherwise would not be able to accommodate the plume of dust. We can take the mess with us if requested also.
Dry blasting (sand blasting): We know sometimes wet blasting is not always the answer with certain parts or configurations of the inside of vehicles. You don’t use a sledge hammer to pound a finishing nail. So we don’t use a big blaster to do small parts or really tight areas that big blasters can’t get in.
WozBuilt uses a custom built, one of a kind, medium duty dry blaster in combination with wet blasting when the need arises. We also use clean filtered air and clean, pure, fine cut abrasives. The result is we leave the perfect profile for automotive coatings. With this blaster we are able to blast anything from washers and bolts to the whole car any time of the year. It is a little slower than a big industrial blaster but the results are amazing. WozBuilt has perfected this blaster to work in the wintertime on vehicles with no damage or warpage to panels either. It is probably in the technique and experience more than the equipment. Robert has blasted almost 100 vehicles.
Engine valve covers and oil pan after being blasted
and painted by WozBuilt.
Industrial Blasters: Big industrial blasters with coarse, aggressive abrasives leave higher profiles that automotive primers just can’t and are not designed to cover. This leaves you no option but to profile sand everything before priming and someone has to pay for that extra time spent prepping. What is the point of paying for prepping if you still have to prep?
Ready for Primer: In both cases, wet and Dry, WozBuilt leaves you or your customer’s vehicle with a primer ready surface, warpage free. Wet on wet epoxy for the interior, undercarriage, firewall and door jams can be used. This can save thousands of dollars and hrs. If used to its full advantages, it will give you a show quality finish without sanding anything but imperfections in the epoxy.
A seadoo body before being blasted and prepped for paint.
A seadoo body after being blasted and primed.
Soda Blasting: Soda Blasting is the least aggressive of all abrasive blasting methods. WozBuilt will use this method for some things like mixing it with other abrasives for odour suppression or on its own where food grade blasting is required in the cooking industry. Or for surface cleaning and stain removal with as little etching as possible. WozBuilt can do it wet or dry.
Soda Blasting Info: There is lots of information about soda blasting, which is great, but WozBuilt does not believe this method should be used on vehicles. Don’t think this method can’t warp panels because it can! All dry blasting creates heat. Soda blasting uses high pressure / high volume air because it is not very aggressive meaning you have to be on the panels longer to do the same job.
Soda Blasting is also not aggressive enough to remove rust at all, NEVER! It will not remove anything hard efficiently, including body filler. It is extremely expensive compared to other medias and you need a lot of it to do the same job.
Does soda give adhesion? Soda does not give a profile deep enough for good adhesion of coatings so you still have to acid etch it and or sand it after it is blasted. In scientific terms, Soda is a base (alkaline) and most automotive primers use an acid to gain adhesion to the metals. The residue left from soda blasting neutralizes the acid causing poor adhesion.
Soda and the environment: Bicarbonate soda does not harm humans or animals, but it will kill plants if not cleaned up properly. Soda does contain a certain amount of salt. This salt does get imbedded into the substrate so using a salt and chloride remover with water is an absolute must before continuing your surface prep.
Does soda leave a coating? Soda leaves a coating / residue itself that keeps metal from oxidizing, but it absolutely has to be washed off and neutralized with water. This then causes flash rusting which has to be removed by sanding or acid etching. Acid etching then has to be washed off with water. Water causes flash rusting and has to be sanded… here is a cycle that never ends and almost always causes problems if not done right. If the company that soda blasts your project also preps and primes it, it would probably be ok, but ask them if they will warranty it?
There is no paint manufacturer who will warranty a product if it has ever been soda blasted! This should tell you something! For most it is wise to avoid it when you will most likely be spending well over $15,000.00 just for a cheap restoration after this stage. Why chance it? We won’t!
The rear fenders on this Wallace tractor were fabricated from scratch by WozBuilt. They were then blasted & painted along with the gas tank to match the rest of the tractor which was restored by the owner.
What about dry ice? Dry Ice is the solid state form of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). CO2 is a colorless odorless gas found naturally in our atmosphere.
Does dry ice blasting give adhesion? Dry Ice blasting does not give adhesion. It cannot create a profile because it is not abrasive enough. The beauty of this method of media blasting is the dry ice partials break down on contact and become vapor, it is actually an amazing process to see! This method absolutely rules when it comes to electrical room’s, food grade cleaning, mould, smoke, grease, oils, in areas that would be difficult to clean up with other methods. It doesn’t damage the substrate at all. We have seen where it didn’t even damage stickers.
Dry ice process – The blasting process uses broken down, ground up dry ice in a granulated form of media (like abrasive). It is carried by a high volume pressurized air stream (or other inert gas). The dry ice breaks down on impact and turns into vapor and then turns back into CO2. Only the contaminants or coatings which are removed create the mess to be cleaned up. If contaminants are toxic, full certified containment is absolutely necessary because of the large volume of air being used will keep contaminants air born.
This is a truck box after being blasted by WozBuilt.
This is a truck box after prepped and painted by WozBuilt.