Car's "home" for 3 days...

Most of the time the car is cleaned, aqua-sandblasted, painted, treated, and dried it is up on a car lift.


Note:   These Behind-the-Scenes photos were taken during the treatment of a 'typical' car: a nice-looking and well-kept six year old Mazda 626 from Uppsala, treated by Rostskyddsspecialisten.

Cleaning

A "rainy" day...

Even with bright sunshine outside, the Rostskyddsspecialisten needs full rain gear when cleaning an auto!   Dirt, grime, rocks, etc. are blasted away in a high-pressure cloud of water and vapor, in preparation for rust removal.

Note 1:   Dirt... sticks... rocks... road salt... moisture... mud... all take up residence throughout your car's frame, and help accelerate rusting and pitting... often in areas most car owners never see or suspect.  Under no circumstances should should rust protection be applied without a thorough cleaning and complete drying.

Note 2:   It is a sad reality that some companies simply spray black goo over everything, with no regard to proper cleaning, drying, and rust removal.  Many car owners spend thousands, and are never aware their car is in worse shape than ever, since everything is now securely attached to their rusting car with a layer of black "protectant". Ironically, even a car wash will not be able to remove the things that are now trapped and savagely digesting their car's metal!

Sand city...
Sand ends up here:

The Sand Job!

As many as eight bags of brand new blasting sand can be needed to properly remove the rust with sandblasting!   This Mazda required five bags (125 kg) of sand.




Rust that is destroying your car ends up here... on the floor, too!  The floor is covered with about one bag's worth of sand from 30 minutes of sandblasting.

Photo # 1:

Photo # 2:

Photo # 3:

Photo # 4:

Sandblasting!




Photo # 1:  This 6 year old Mazda 626 is "typical" for a sedan... lots of rust and corrosion.   All silverish metal (near the end of the high-pressure blaster in this photo) has been stripped of orange-brown rust and corrosion, leaving shiny (but rust-pitted) metal underneath.




Photo # 2:  Nowhere to hide... sand under high pressure from a powerful machine removes rust and corrosion from places even wire brushes cannot reach!




Photo # 3:  The brown streaks under the Rostskyddsspecialisten's mighty blaster are flakes of rust leaving the car at 50 to 100 kph!




Photo # 4:  Always remove the rust!   More vertical brown streaks indicate the Rostskyddsspecialisten has rooted out yet another pocket of cancerous rust.


Note:  Rust should always be removed from metal, before priming paint and Rust Protection is applied. Unfortunately, some companies actually refuse to clean and remove rust, which is one reason they cannot offer a real 10-year warranty on every car, such as our Warranty (Guaranty).

The Drying Process

After each step!

After each major step, a complete drying must occur to produce the best quality and longest lasting treatment.  With nature's slow drying, this could take several days after each step; it could thus take weeks to do a proper rust protection job.  However, the Rostskyddsspecialisten has large heated air machines to do a thorough drying in only 10 to 24 hours after each major step.

Note:   In fact, some companies simply don't bother to clean (much less machine dry!!) a car they will "attempt" to protect.  Why?  Well, you probably guessed it... the drying machines are expensive, and it is time-consuming to do the job properly.




Photo # 5:  The heated air system is built in to the floor, and provides evenly distributed warm air under the entire car.  The large black hoses (in the foreground) from the heated air machine are connected to the car frame and interior frame, and warm dry air is forced though the frame after cleaning, after sandblasting, priming/painting, and every layer of protectant application (we apply three layers!).




Photo # 6:  Industrial fans with massive motor and blades reach larger underbody sections with relentless blasts of air for hours, after each step.