IN owning or restoring a Land Rover, we all have a need to clean parts or areas of the vehicle sooner or later, removing oil, wax, ingrained dirt and other contaminants. There are a number of processes to achieve that, either chemically or physically. But what are the different processes, and what are the strengths of each? In this occasional series, LRM looks at various methods to clean components, to help you choose what technique is right for which parts restoration. In this first feature, we look at dry ice blasting.
Blast-cleaning involves a blast media being fired, using compressed air, at the surface of the part, physically shocking off contaminants, loose paint or corrosion to produce a clean surface. Dry ice blasting uses frozen carbon dioxide (CO²) pellets at-78.5°C as the cleaning medium. Carbon dioxide is normally a gas but, when chilled to a very low temperature, becomes a solid, sometimes known as dry ice, and lends itself superbly as a blast medium.
The process works in a combined way. When the
