Sandblasting & Media Blasting
Everything comes off first. There is no version of this that skips a step.
Paint stripping and rust removal take a part back to sound bare metal by dissolving old coatings chemically, blasting them off mechanically, or using both in sequence. Unlimited Powder Coating in Hackettstown, New Jersey strips old paint, powder, undercoating, primer and corrosion off automotive, motorcycle, industrial and household metal, either as prep for a new finish or as a standalone service.
The single most common reason a finish fails is that something was coated over instead of removed. Powder over old paint looks perfect on collection day and lifts within a season. Coating over rust hides it for a few months while it keeps spreading underneath.
So stripping is not a service bolted onto coating here, it is the first half of the job. What varies is the method.
Chemical stripping dissolves the coating and gets into places abrasive cannot reach: seams, corners, internal surfaces and threads. It is the right first move on parts buried under decades of paint or undercoating.
Blasting is mechanical, faster on rust and mill scale, and leaves a keyed surface that powder grips. It also lets the abrasive be matched to the metal, which matters on thin panels and cast aluminum that a harsh media would distort.
Most heavily coated parts get both, in that order.
Stripping is often how you find out what you really have. A gate that looks solid under three coats of paint can turn out to be paper thin at the base. A wheel can reveal a crack under the peeling clear. Finding that before you spend money on a finish is not a bad outcome, it is the point of doing the prep properly.
Once the part is clean, the next decision is what protects it: color alone for indoor parts, or a zinc-rich primer underneath for anything that lives outside.
Chemical stripping dissolves thick coatings and reaches into seams, corners and threads where abrasive cannot go, which makes it right for heavily painted or undercoated parts. Blasting is better on rust and mill scale and leaves the keyed surface a coating needs to grip. Many parts get both: chemical first to take the bulk off, then a blast to finish.
Surface rust comes off and the part underneath is usually fine. Rust that has eaten through, or pitted a part badly enough to compromise it, is a different conversation, and you will get told that before any money is spent rather than after the part is stripped. Sometimes stripping is exactly how you find out which one you have.
Yes. Plenty of customers strip here and paint, plate or store the parts themselves. Bare steel begins to flash rust quickly once it is clean, especially in humid weather, so have a plan for what happens next before you collect them.
