PY Online Forums - Bringing the Pontiac Hobby Together

PY Online Forums - Bringing the Pontiac Hobby Together (https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/index.php)
-   The Body Shop TECH (https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=417)
-   -   Dry Ice Stripping (https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=884667)

ponjohn 03-18-2026 07:18 PM

Dry Ice Stripping
 
I have a 45k mile original 74 Ventura. It has the factory undercoating I want to remove.

Is dry ice stripping or dustless blasting the best choice?

SR-71 03-18-2026 10:55 PM

Dry ice

Mario64 03-19-2026 10:54 AM

1 Attachment(s)
i had my 64 grand prix done with dry ice. here is one pic of the dirt removed by the procedure. there was another pile that was not photographed about the same size. not cheap but worth it.
mario64

1fozziebear 03-19-2026 11:42 AM

Dry Ice is kinda of the 1000 Grit option. Not cheap, low mess but will not remove scale, bondo, undercoating etc. I tried it on a Foxbody undercarriage that was a little rusty (not bad) and no undercoatng other than factory paint and gave up. I had the rental trailer Air Compressor, the machine everything and it's more of a cleaning system than a "removal" system. Just bought some fine walnut shells and a HF pressure pot and got it done!

ponjohn 03-19-2026 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1fozziebear (Post 6608380)
Dry Ice is kinda of the 1000 Grit option. Not cheap, low mess but will not remove scale, bondo, undercoating etc. I tried it on a Foxbody undercarriage that was a little rusty (not bad) and no undercoatng other than factory paint and gave up. I had the rental trailer Air Compressor, the machine everything and it's more of a cleaning system than a "removal" system. Just bought some fine walnut shells and a HF pressure pot and got it done!

What I have underneath is, hardened black undercoat. Do you mean that the dry ice method will not touch it?

I do have access to dustless strippers near me.

65madgoat 03-19-2026 11:44 PM

A professional dry ice person can likely adjust his gun to remove the undercoating. It removed my hardened OEM wheel well coating with ease.

$300 an hour is the going rate around here.

mgarblik 03-20-2026 11:26 AM

I went down the dry ice rabbit hole last year. I had high expectations of it looking like new underneath after the procedure. My car was a 47K mile 73 Firebird. It had factory undercoating and dealer applied undercoating, (tar like) Similar to Ziebart. You pay by the hour and how much ice is used. I spent 2K and then just had him stop. The process worked great on the hard, crusty undercoating but barely worked at all on the tar like gummy stuff and oily or heavy grease areas. So it's kind of a mixed bag in my opinion. It would have taken another 2K worth of dry ice blasting to get almost all of it off. After I got it home I spend about 4 hours with heavily saturated bath towels and stoddard solvent and removed almost as much as the dry ice did for about $50.00 in materials. So in summary, it works but very expensive. Does not produce miracle results.

ponjohn 03-20-2026 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 65madgoat (Post 6608455)
A professional dry ice person can likely adjust his gun to remove the undercoating. It removed my hardened OEM wheel well coating with ease.

$300 an hour is the going rate around here.

I got a quote today, $250 / hr plus the cost of dry ice.

ponjohn 03-20-2026 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgarblik (Post 6608489)
I went down the dry ice rabbit hole last year. I had high expectations of it looking like new underneath after the procedure. My car was a 47K mile 73 Firebird. It had factory undercoating and dealer applied undercoating, (tar like) Similar to Ziebart. You pay by the hour and how much ice is used. I spent 2K and then just had him stop. The process worked great on the hard, crusty undercoating but barely worked at all on the tar like gummy stuff and oily or heavy grease areas. So it's kind of a mixed bag in my opinion. It would have taken another 2K worth of dry ice blasting to get almost all of it off. After I got it home I spend about 4 hours with heavily saturated bath towels and stoddard solvent and removed almost as much as the dry ice did for about $50.00 in materials. So in summary, it works but very expensive. Does not produce miracle results.

Good info. That's my concern. I have the same exact product applied to my car.

I saw a video where a guy used a scaling gun and that worked great.


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:54 PM.