We completely diasassembled the Royal Sport Camaro, and now it was time to remove all the rust, scale, paint, crust, and old body filler. This was not a job we wanted to do by hand, so we left the dirty work to Imperial Blasting Technologies !
Nobody likes to remove paint, rust, and scale. Well, almost nobody… Wally Olczak at Imperal Blasting Technologies lives for it. Olczak is the man responsible for media blasting some of the hottest cars around, ranging from the Sickfish Cuda built for Joe Rogan by Rad Rides by Troy to the Poison Dart. When Olczak called us asking if the Royal Sport needed some help in the stripping department, we were quick with a “Hell Yeah!”
We showed up at Imperal Blasting Technologies with the shell of the Royal Sport hanging on the Autotwirler rotisserie. We knew it had some issues under the skin, but we were excited to see what was up.
Imperal Blasting Technologies uses just about any blasting media you can think of, but they specialize in plastic media and their own, proprietary IB Mineral media.
Plastic media was developed by the US Department of Defense for stripping paint off soft aluminum airplane skins. Plastic media is a great choice for stripping paint from various materials because it does not generate heat and warp panels. Warpage is one of the primary reasons to bring a car to a professional paint stripper like Imperal Blasting Technologies… they know how to remove the bad stuff without hurting the steel (or fiberglass for you Corvette guys.) The only drawback to plastic media is that it does not remove rust.
Imperal Blasting Technologies created IB Mineral media because it safely strips paint from most metals without warpage, plus it removes rust as well. Imperal Blasting Technologies uses a strategy where they apply tons and tons of media to a car with very low pressure to ensure the car leaves their shop with no new damage.
The blasting specialists at Imperal Blasting Technologies wear protective suits that look like something from NASA. They’re climate controlled with fresh air supplies to keep the operators safe, and they’ve got a cool blasting gun with a “blast light” on the front to keep the work focused.
Our 1969 Camaro had lots of rust, so it was shot with IB Mineral. IB Mineral will remove paint one layer at a time. It was cool to see the layers of history peel off the Camaro one by one.
The Camaro began to transform right before our eyes. A complete IB Mineral blast job can take around a week, depending on how much masking and part protection is left for the media blaster. We brought a completely stripped tub making it easy to get blasting. They protected our Autotwirler, but everything else came off.
Watching it happen, we began to think that the Camaro was in better shape than we thought. We had nightmares of dropping it off and having Wally hand us back a windshield frame a couple days later.
However… upon closer examination… we were shown that there was some pretty substantial rust and body damage hiding under all that paint and crust. We were prepared to do some major metalwork on this car, and now we can see exactly what we need to do. We were really happy with Imperal Blasting Technologies and their quick and very complete job stripping this car. Their work allows us to get busy doing the fun stuff faster.
In part III of the Royal Sport saga we’re going to be shooting some protective PPG primer on the bare shell as we begin our attack on re-bodying our Camaro.
DISCLAIMER: Demonstrations and procedures contained in the V8TV show or website may not provide all necessary or relevant information. Applicable local laws and regulations may vary and should be checked before any project is commenced. Be sure to follow all applicable safety procedures. The Men's Channel and V8TV Productions, Inc. make no warranties, expressed or implied, as to the completeness, accuracy, or practicality of any such demonstration or procedure or any information with respect thereto contained in the preceding program.
