MEDIA BLASTING
The chassis will be powdercoated before going to the body shop. This was going to be tricky because Big Red’s body, chassis, and rollcage are all a single unit. They can’t be separated, so planning the process steps is important. It was decided that Big Red’s chassis and rollcage would be blasted first, then sent back to the shop for fabrication. Later on in the fabrication process, Big Red would be sent to the blaster to get the exterior sheetmetal blasted. Then Big Red would be powdercoated and go to the body shop from there.
Every possible part was removed, and it was sent to be blasted at Devco Sandblasting in San Bernardino, California. Devco has large blasting booths for industrial equipment, and offers different types of blasting media. Owner Doug Veirs, with manager Billy Leever and the Big Red crew, decided to blast the chassis and interior with copper slag because of the softness of the copper particles and the final finish of the original metal. Whoever said beauty is only skin deep was talking about humans, but the same applies to cars. Media blasting removes all the paint
and filler that hides flaws from the naked eye. Big Red’s chassis was naked for the first time since it was originally built in 1987-88. With Big Red’s signature black-painted interior and chassis, some flaws were hidden. Not a lot, but light was shed on a couple of cracks and unfinished welds in non-critical places.
The crew now will be able to work faster because they won’t have to spend time grinding or wire-brushing to prepare the surfaces for welding. All the surface contaminants are blown away, leaving only fresh steel. Let the fabricating commence!
