What comes first, media blast or patchwork?

[D70challenger]

Well the time is coming up to finally get my body put together and assembled so im asking around some shops for prices. I wasnt sure what comes first, second and third. im going to have it mediablasted, primed, and patch work (such as widshield corners, trunk gutters, trunk pan, inner fender, 4spd hump) What order should it go in and how much do you think it should be? i heard about 1,500 for the media and prime, but i have no clue for the patchwork. any input is appreciated! and i doubt anybody is around me but can somebody recommend a good SoCal Orange County Shop?

[dutch]

in an ideal situation, I`d have the bad/ suspicious parts blasted and repaired, then blast and primer the entire car.

[Aussie Challenger]

in an ideal situation, I`d have the bad/ suspicious parts blasted and repaired, then blast and primer the entire car.

     You need it blasted to uncover all the rust points, then have a quick coat of something to protect against surface rust which usually starts after the media blasting. Then just cut and fit new pieces as needed, prepare the surface and then move onto paint preparation.

[Cuda Cody]

Blast everything first (about $900 to $1,100 for the blasting is normal and add the cost of epoxy and shooting it on to that).  Having it all put in epoxy you don't have to worry about more rust.  I'm sure you will find more rust once it's blasted,, so do not order all the metal until you see what you really need.

Then the body work can begin.  Depending on the amount of sheet metal and quality of work, you can spend as little as a few grand for a bondo bucket to 10K to 20K for a top end job.  Sounds like you need at least a few grand in metal alone.

Depending on your build, you might want to have subframe connectors, front and rear torque boxes put in at the same time you have the metal work done.  If you do subframe connectors be careful of the e-brake cable location.  Feel free to call me if you want to discuss in detail.

[wally426ci]

I haven't read the other responses but I would say cut off the worst areas first so you can blast behind them.

[JH27N0B]

On my T/A project, my restorer was going to do some metalwork prior to media blasting because he thought some rusted areas like the A pillars and trunk would be weak and could create problems when the car was rotated on the rotiessierie during the media blasting process.  So he got started on some metal work and by the time he sent it out for the media blasting, he had completed 90% of the patching and metal work including replacing the trunk and tailight panel with solid used parts I had supplied!  This actually made a lot of sense, the nice used sheetmetal parts were going to be blasted too, so now they were already on the car!  And the car was structurally very solid with the completed metal work so no worries about anything twisting or distorting during the media blasting.

[D70challenger]

unfortunatley i have already purchased the trunk gutters, inner fender, and trunk pan. certain parts are clearly destroyed, i took a few pictures this morning to show you guys.
Trunk... more holes then visible cause there are parts stored in the trunk.

this is the trunk gutter, other is of the same degree.

windhield corner, again, opposite side is about the same.

inner fender was destroyed by battery acid im assuming on this one.

[beekppr]

Im at the same point d70 with my new challenger. I dont quite have the rust issues you have but most of my front end sheet metal needs replacing. I was worried of removing things like radiator support and inner fenders until after blasting. I need to get the front frame rails straightened first and will probably replace sheet metal last. My superbee looked like your car once. It was a 10k job back then to make it all perfect. Good luck with your project. Your gonna be really happy you did it right once it's all done.

[Belgium Cuda]

I blasted and primed my body for 800$ just to realize that I have to cut out half
of the metal I had blasted. I will have my car blasted once more when all bodywork is done, atleast I want to.

Per