Car restoration is an art and a science
Whether you’re rebuilding a muscle car from a scattered collection of old parts or you’re restoring an antique car that has all of its original parts but has been sitting and collecting dust for decades, it’s important to keep the spirit of the car in mind. When car restoration is your business, it’s just as important to make restoration choices that appeal to audiences and potential buyers. That’s why using auto restoration laser stripping by Laser-swipe cleaning is all about preserving and protecting.
The most important rule of restoring antique and exotic cars is to keep as much of the original as you can. Finding a car with all the original parts, and in pristine condition is nearly impossible. Even if you track one down, it will carry a hefty price tag. But if you’re in the market of restoring old cars, you don’t want well-preserved models in factory condition. You want the ones that can only be saved by an expert. Lasermach with it's laser-Swipe PhotonClean Series can help.
Automotive Laser Cleaning at Restoration
Lasermach provides a cleaning solution designed to provide the highest quality and efficiency to Automotive parts and Restoration. We offer several solutions to make processes move along more efficiently and cost-effectively. The latest technology can offer the best possible cleaning treatment for both pre-welding and post-welding. This ensures a seamless and robust joint that can is rust-resistant and coated for life without the need to use harsh chemicals and create waste.
Further, laser cleaning has been proven as the perfect option to not only prepare surfaces for bonding but to generate a corrosion-resistant coating for bonding. Many clients are choosing solutions from Lasermach as the technology to use for corrosion resistance and bond prep all in one package.
Our high power new water-cooled lasers cleaners operate full-time in fully automated and integrated applications for weld preparation, contaminant oxide removal, injection mold cleaning, corrosion resistance, and bonding preparation.
The Science of Precision Cleaning and Restoration
Rust - particularly in temperate climates - is a car killer. It’s all well and good if you live in California or Spain and can leave cars out on your driveway without a care in the world, but in an often rainy place like the UK, or Germany cars can easily rot and crumble away.
This is due to the oxidisation of metal when water is left to sit and fester in whichever crevice it can find. And considering that wheel arches and sills are the first point of contact for water being flicked up from the road surface, they are normally the first casualties.
Normally, the only way to repair your car after an infestation of rust is some good old grinding, cutting and some choice fabrication.
But laser cleaning is a new affordable technology that blows the traditional rust removal methods out the water. Cleaning a rusty grille down to nice shiny metal, the device appears to complete a two-hour job in seconds. And the great thing is that there is no hoax or camera trickery, this technology does exist!
The process is called sublimation and is the act of changing the state of metal to a gas form, skipping the liquid phase. This is achieved using high frequency bursts of micro-plasmas caused by a pulsed laser beam, which - when combined with extremely high thermal pressure and shockwaves - can be set to a certain depth to skim away a surface of rust. So the device can be set to burn away pretty much any material that is layered over metal, be it paint, filler or dreaded rust.
This laser cleaning technology will be a true game-changer in the world of car restoration. If a car’s chassis and bodywork are beyond the realms of a plug-in grinder to provide some mechanical sandpaper, sand-blasting can be used to remove even the thickest sections of corrosion, but this requires a complete strip-down and is a messy, arduous process. Therefore this handheld vacuum-like product could be the answer to every car restorer’s dreams.
What makes this laser device even more intriguing is the fact that it can have an on-board hoover system that immediately sucks up the vaporised rust, making the entire rust removal process as clean and simple as you could possibly hope for.
Quality restauration of old timers and reparation of exclusive cars primary rule is:
Preserve as much of the original material as you can!
Pierce through the layers of newer paint applications.
If you find a car with panels that have new paint applied over the original, then sand-blasting and chemical washes put that paint at risk. That forces you to make a hard decision: do you risk sacrificing part of the original color to fully remove the new layers, or do you leave it as it is? But with laser cleaning, you can get the surface cleared away layer by layer. We can remove that newer paint without touching the original material. Laser cleaning can be adjusted to remove minuscule layers of material at a time, so a first pass removes the bulk of the unwanted paint, a second time focuses on scanning and spot removing, and following passes ensure complete removal.
Remove the rust that has been corroding the vehicle.
Laser cleaning doesn’t just remove paint layer by layer. It can also scan for and destroy layers of corrosion. The machine can be set to leave the underlying material completely untouched. This means rust that is covering the entirety of a panel can be removed without putting the substrate at risk, even around folds and seams. For body panels and car parts with extensive rust damage that has even eaten away large sections of the metal, laser cleaning can preserve what remains of the part.
Keep the detailing on the surface level.
The sign of a well-preserved car isn’t just that it has as many of the original parts as possible and that there isn’t any filler, putty, or modern additions. All of the original parts need to retain the detailing and small complex patterns with little to no wear. The more fragile and striking the hood ornament is, the more critical it is to find an original and use processes that keep it in the best possible condition.
Laser cleaning doesn’t just keep one hundred percent of the remaining material in decorative elements. It also helps with number-matching. Expert car enthusiasts often look for number matching before investing in a car. Even if a car is beautifully restored on the outside, they still want the engine, transmission, and axle to match the vehicle identification number (VIN). That helps buyers trust in the authenticity of the car. But raised or engraved digits and small type are particularly susceptible to wear and tear. Sand-blasting and grinding put the small lines at too much risk and, once they’re gone, the vehicle is less attractive to any collectors who are looking for as much verification as possible.
Laser cleaning has the potential to be a game-changer in the world of car restoration and maintenance.
Here’s a closer look at how it can be applied to automobiles:
- Paint Removal and Restoration: Laser cleaners can be used for precise paint removal during car restoration projects. By carefully controlling the laser’s power and focus, it can remove unwanted layers of paint without damaging the underlying metal or previous paint layers you want to preserve. This allows for a more controlled approach compared to traditional methods like sanding or chemical strippers, which can be aggressive and risk damaging the car’s body.
- Undercarriage Cleaning: Laser cleaning machines can be used to tackle tough grime and undercoating buildup on a car’s undercarriage. The focused laser beam can reach into nooks and crannies, removing stubborn dirt and debris that traditional pressure washing might miss.
- Laser Rust Removal: Rust is an iron oxide, and many cars see this appear over time. Laser cleaning is effective in removing rust from car parts. The pulsed laser beam targets the rust particles, heating them rapidly and causing them to detach from the metal surface. This is a particularly beneficial option for delicate areas or components where traditional methods like wire brushes or sandblasting might be too harsh and cause gouging or warping.
- Engine Component Cleaning: Laser cleaning can be used for cleaning delicate engine components like valves, pistons, and intake manifolds. The precise nature of the cleaning process ensures removal of contaminants without damaging the intricate parts, making laser technology the best and most cost-effective choice for cleaning metal.