Red Rallye resto

[Ben_w]

So,

The blasting. I got the results I wanted/needed, mostly. Lessons to be learned? You bet your b*llocks to a barn door there is.

So the guy turned up, looking pretty professional and started getting set up. Had a look at the car, explained what I needed doing, pointed out the front end loom connection and to be careful of that and told him what was what. He got set up, put down sheets to catch the media, fired everything up and got busy.

Problems arose fairly quickly. The factory underseal proved very difficult to remove. Very difficult indeed. So much of a pain he had to turn things right up and used lots of media, most of which is still on my drive....driver's side proved more difficult for some reason than passenger but, eventually, the job was done.







So I had a good look round. The best news is that no new nasties have been uncovered. Not too bad. Whilst removing the underseal, it's left the seam sealant in place which I'm fine with. It was however, so cold, a lot of the water/blast media mix had frozen on contact. Again, I did ask was it too cold etc. No, wasn't an issue. Numerous watering cans of hot water was fetching it off.

I then nearly punched the guy.



The one single bit I'd asked him to be careful about. The single exposed electrical connection I've kept clean and dry for 18 months. :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:

The only reason it's still there is that accessing it from the inside means, I think, taking the dash out. Not really somewhere I want to go, so I hadn't. I've managed to scrape a lot of the sand out with a small electrical screwdriver. Tomorrow, I will get the wife hairdryer on it and get it warm and the sand dry and then get an aerosol air cleaner to blast it all out.

To top it off, he hasn't used an inhibitor in the water :confused: I had to get a drying towel and dry everything off. There's no way I'm getting any primer on it tonight, its way too cold so it's dry and covered with a polythene sheet.

Gut says he's a bit inexperienced. I asked him how long he'd being doing it. He said about 2 years.

So what do I have? Well, I have a blasted front end, which ultimately is what I wanted. I have no new nasties which is good but I have a bare, exposed bay I desperately need to get some protection in and the best part of 3 bags of crushed glass media on my drive.

Lessons learnt? Ask for a couple of quotes and compare. Ask about methods etc. Ask about experience. Ask, ask and ask again. Take it somewhere and have them do it at their place, not on your drive.

Am i happy? Yes and no. Yes I got the front end blasted. No, because I think I should have trusted my gut and waited for better weather and asked more questions. My impatience won.

I'm worried about it flash rusting, not much more I can do about that though now. I'm off for a bloody hot shower, followed by lots of alcohol. Tomorrow is another day. Iay run out and get some spray primer, just to get something on it quick because having opened by Electrox, it's not useable any more so need to order some more. However, I just need some kind of protection in the bare metal