Shotblast Targa bar cover?

doublestuff · doublestuff's Garage

My targa bar is painted black, I think it's factory paint. It's pretty scratched up. I like the look of the bare metal ones. I have access to a shotblaster at work.
My questions are - has anyone tried blasting the paint off? Will the bare metal be presentable as-is, or will I need to do something to it afterwards? Any danger of screwing it up by shotblasting it? I don't have access to any other media (walnut shells, etc).

Or should I just re-paint it?

Thanks,

Jason

TRE Cup · TRE Cup's Garage

use paint stripper; that should lift the coating off. Then you can get busy brush finishing it, or polishing it to a mirror, or painting it the same color as your car.

check out powder paint shops in your area. they should have a variety of texture finishes with one that is real close to the later oem black

doublestuff · doublestuff's Garage

Thanks. I was hoping to blast it off, just because it's so much quicker, less messy, and more satisfying than stripper... Oh well.

chocolatelab · chocolatelab's Garage

J

I have a 78sc thats brown and the bar is brown. Please make sure to post pictures of the finished product because I am kicking around doing the same thing. Love to see before and after.

VaSteve · 05-18-2009, 06:47 PM

ianc wrote a good thread on it a couple of years ago. If you blast it, you need really low pressure. The powdercoating shop ruined mine.

John W. · 05-18-2009, 07:03 PM

I'm not sure how bad your targa bar is but mine was pretty faded when I got the car. I used Mothers Back to Black and it really fixed it up nicely. A small investment that could work.

carslutt · carslutt's Garage

i recently picked up the soda blast conversion form east wood. i wonder if i can safely strip the paint off my targa bar with it. has anyone tried soda blasting there's?

frankc · 05-18-2009, 08:39 PM

The "bare metal" bars are brushed stainless steel. However, for some reason I am thinking that the painted (black) bars are aluminum (I had mine off a loooong time ago). I could be wrong, but if that's the case, it won't look the same stripped, and will damage easily with any type of blasting (other than soda), so be careful.