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[Shop-talk] Soda Blasting: My Experience

To: Shop-Talk List <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: [Shop-talk] Soda Blasting: My Experience
From: Doug Braun <doug@dougbraun.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:33:27 -0700 (PDT)
Hello,

Yesterday I soda-blasted body of my '31 Ford Sedan
(see 31ford.dougbraun.com). This was such an enjoyable
experience (compared to other methods for stripping
paint) that I have to tell you about it:

I have a typical cheapo 10-gallon pressure-pot blaster
that I had previously used with Black Beauty (coal
slag) to blast the frame, suspension, rear axle, both
sides of the floorpans, and the rear wheel wells.
Since the frame and the underside of the body were
already refinished and the body was back on the
chassis, doing any more sandblasting was out of the
question. Also, all the nooks and crannies on a sedan
body (like around the doors and the belt moldings)
make it really tedious to use chemical paint stripper
or mechanical stripping disks.

I bought Eastwood's (overpriced) retrofit kit and
three sacks of blasting soda. I blasted the rain
gutters (inside and out), all the areas around the
door and quarter window openings, the cowls, and the
windshield pillars. On the rear quarters of the body I
used chemical stripper on the open, smooth areas, and
I soda-blasted the moldings and the places I missed
with the chemical stripper. (The rear panel and rear
window opening had previously been stripped.)

I was able to do all this work with two sacks of soda.
The job was MUCH more pleasant than sandblasting. When
sandblasting, I needed to wear a hood and a forced air
supply to keep the hood window from fogging up, and I
was filthy afterwards. There was also sand all over
the place. When using soda, I needed to use only
gloves, goggles, a simple mouth/nose mask, and
earplugs. If it was really hot outside, I probably
could have worn a bathing suit.

Afterwards, a quick shower (or a spray from a hose),
and you are quite clean. And vacuuming or blowing away
the leftover soda is easier than for normal blast
media, because it is finer and lighter. Today it
rained, and the leftover soda in the driveway has
disappeared without a trace.

There are a few downsides to soda blasting: the media
costs a lot more than Black Beauty. It is maybe 3x
more expensive, and cannot be recycled, so the
effective cost is maybe 6x more than Black Beauty. It
does not remove rust at all. Often you will strip the
paint from a sound-looking area, and discover that
there are lots of slightly rusty patches that have
formed under the paint. (A light sanding will deal
with this.) Finally, you have to make sure your air
supply is pretty dry, or you could get leftover media
caked up in the equipment.

But even with the extra expense, it was well worth it
for me, because in one morning I finished work that
would have otherwise taken me a couple of weeks to do.

Doug
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