The 'E' Type Forum

folks, removed the black material and rubber hose around headliner and tired to remove it before sandblast of car, it is clean and perfect shape, it will not drop out, I tired to pry it a little but afraid to damage the only perfect part of this car, is it glued in?? will it come out?? or do I just try to use plastic and tape to cover it?

I believe the headliner is glued to the roof and imagine it is a very difficult job to remove it without damaging it. I am sure I have seen a great post on here re: headliner fitting as well as the links to headliners below this post.

If the headlining is perfect cover and preserve it. No reason to make things difficult. If you are sandblasting do not blast the roof or any outside panels. Only sandblast panels that are difficult to strip manually. Cut out any areas that are rusted and destined for replacement and open and blast box sections unless you are absolutely sure they are rust free. Unless the bonnet is pristine disassemble before any blasting and on the large panels only blast flange areas. Hand strip the rest. Be very sure that the guy doing the blasting is very experienced in auto blasting. Cross bracing to maintain body tolerances will be required. Good luck. Others may have different opinions.

The problem with sandblasting large unstressed panels like most of those on an E type is that the pressure used distorts and stretches the metal . The medium used is critical, and most people today seem to suggest that walnut shell is the ideal rather than some harder material

RetroPower (UK) has an interesting video on YouTube that describes their philosophy and process for stripping and refinishing steel body shells. They use recycled glass for the media as it has less mass (and less friction/heat) that metal based aggregates, but is sufficiently aggressive to fully clean the panels. Wet blasting is becoming popular in the U.S. for it's low dust and portability and seems to work well.

What ever you use, you will end up with media in all the crevices and box sections which needs fully cleaned out or you will create future moisture trap and corrosion issues. See Monocoque Metalworks videos for his dissertation on trapped blast media.