Dear V-8 Buick caregivers who are always in search better ways to do things, The March/April issue of the Hagerty Drivers club magazine has an advertisement for a cleaning technique I had never heard of (after page 26.) Here is the URL for the company: https://www.drycenation.com/ They are apparently making a twist on sand blasting by using dry ice pellets instead of abrasives. The extreme cooling causes the contaminants to contract and become loose from the components of your car. The idea may be old but this technology was refined to its present state in 2019, so it is very new. Judging from the website, the service appears to be quite expensive and most likely wouldn't be of immediate interest to anyone on this forum. However, the concept is quite interesting and with time the technology might become more widespread and less expensive. There is a report on the 65GS.com forum of a second company providing a similar technology. So this is one of those emerging technological "how-tos" to keep an eye on for the future. Cheers, Edouard
I've been trying to get a rep from Cold Jet to schedule a time to come out and demo a machine for me. Total investment would be over $20k. I would also need at least 60cfm for air supply. That's a LOT. But I am seeing a big opportunity to use this method. The dry ice is obtained through a local supplier, or you can buy your own machine...another gazillion $. The material comes in 3mm pellets. The machine can then fine tune the size on the pellet down to .3mm for the finest cleaning. The machine I want to use is specifically designed for the auto detailing world. I just need to justify the expense.
Pretty neat idea. Climate would have to be control some i would think. I could only see cost benefit if you were doing it commercially and could recoup investment over time. I'm still using dipping (sending panels out), blasting small stuff and of course sanding away. Of course this is hobby side not like you Smartin.
Holy crap! Did you see that price for the services? 2 grand to clean an undercarriage? 750 to clean 4 wheel wells?
Dry Ice Blasting became popular in home construction 15-20 years ago. Everyone and their brother was testing for mold, and wet wood was considered a problem. After framing and roofing companies were blasting all the wood framing as the dry ice would incinerate all the mold spores on contact.
I had my Wildcat dry ice blasted and undercoated late last summer. Took 50 years of grime off the frame as it was driven on back roads through most of the 70s when my dad drove it while living on the farm. Got it done here: https://www.sublimesurfacing.com/
Here theyre moving off from dry-ice blasting. As i recall, it never got popular, and even the company which is named after that, been making turn to wet-media blasting.
The blasting itself was about $1000CAD, the extras, wheel well touch up and undercoating brought it up to about 1800. My friend did his 85 911 and it cost him about $800 for just the blasting.
It's my understanding that one of the benefits of this would be on cars that need an underside detail but without stripping the paint off. It can be used just to take grease oil and dirt off.
Here's a FB page for a company that performs the service in my area (SE Pa). Lots of pics and short vids. https://www.facebook.com/actdryice Process is better suited for cleaning than it is for a ground-up resto.... would be perfect for a modern classic or well cared for musclecar (like Jason's GSX) to return it to 'year one' condition. Nice how it can remove undercoating but leave the underlying paint intact!
