Media blasting...be careful!

[Milanogold@domain.elided]

Greetings Alfisti!
	Read with some interest the previous posts regarding media blasting.I 
know what it can do if used properly;and this week I saw what happens to a 
car if not done properly.
      A customer had an accident in an early BMW M3; and took it to one of 
the local No.VA body shops that I go into quite a bit.We do a lot of rentals 
in this particular shop.(Now I know why the shop pays for the 
rentals,too.)The rear quarter panel was crunched,and apparently the car had 
been hit  previously.(There was something on the order of 6 coats of paint on 
the car)The shop decided to use media blasting on the car to speed up the 
paint stripping process;because the owner wanted to spring for a new paint 
job on the entire car while it was in the shop.
       Well, the operator of the blaster wasn't too bright;because he ended 
up overheating  and distorting every single body panel on the car!(The 
insurance estimate mentioned repair and finish the quarter panel in 
question,by the way)
The body shop ended up eating the cost of replacing/smoothing out every piece 
of sheet metal on the car.(And 49 days of  car rental).The shop offered to 
buy the car from the customer;but the customer was adamant about keeping his 
car.There was almost $5000 spent on this one car because someone didn't know 
how to use the equipment properly....................
        From what I saw of the replaced body panels,they looked to have been 
heated up pretty badly.I shudder to think what a media blaster in the hands 
of an apprentice body shop worker could do the nose on a spider.The moral of 
my story is:Choose your body shop wisely;the shop that botched the job on 
this Bimmer specializes in foreign cars........... 
Hope this helps!
Terry &Sharon Akins
Alexandria,VA 
1987 Milano gold (Alfie)
1979 Alfetta Velocissima (Lazarus,getting much needed attention starting 
Friday) 

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