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Body work and Paint \  media blasting

media blasting

Body work and Paint Q & A
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groundscr8pr   +1y
has anyone here had good luck doing this. i was thinking of buying one of those 10 or 15 gallon pressur blasters and 300 to 500 lbs of walnut shell. there are no places where i live that offer this. so i have to do it myself.
Jance Customs   +1y
I bought a blast cabinet and 50lbs of glass beads and it works wonders! The only problem I have is my compressor is not big enough so it runs constantly. If you have the right setup it will beat the alternative!
bodydropped85   +1y
yup i would look into soda blasting tho. its non abrasive to the metal(doesnt make it rough)

jance were u get the media from? i need some more for my cabinet.
Gump1986   +1y
i think that eastwood sells alot of different media, not sure about glass beads though.
customchevy   +1y
depends on what your doing and what you wanna do i do it for a living at southern painting co. let me know what you want done and i could tell you the best way of getting it done
AiredOut   +1y
Originally posted by bagged85



yup i would look into soda blasting tho. its non abrasive to the metal(doesnt make it rough)

jance were u get the media from? i need some more for my cabinet.

Never, ever soda blast a car. Soda blasting is for restoring buildings, not cars. It leaves an residue on the surface that paint and primers will not stick to. There are ways to nuetrailize the surface film left by the soda, but you will never get it all off (seams, edges, jambs). There are many different medias to use, soda should never be an option.

Heres some info i found on the subject off another forum:

This was some week for Soda calls.

The last call Friday was from Steve from yearone with a question on the charger he is doing. The whole car was sand blasted as all their cars are. Yes! Sand blasted, like the Blue and Black mustang was and last week he sprayed epoxy on the whole body and frame. So Friday he starts work on deck lid and one door and the epoxy is peeling off, in sheets and can strip the panel with a blow gun.

Now, I have taught Steve about everything he knows as he is a good friend and we work a lot together. So I knew he prepped everything right and there was no need to ask. So my answer was, only way I know this could happen is if the panel was soda blasted. Sure enough he called back and found out soda was used on the deck lid and door as a test but nothing else on the car he was told.

I have had 5 calls like this in last month.

Here are the facts: Soda the sales pitch is it leaves a protective film so the car does not flash rust. Well this film if you take and 80 grit DA to the panel and spray and acid etch or an epoxy or a 2K prime will have about 10-15% adhesion only.

Wash the soda with wax and grease remover and it does nothing to the film. 24 or 36 grit grinder will clean the soda off so filler will stick.

The only way to neutralize this film is WARM water with SOAP. Above all this should be done with a scuff pad and than rinse real good as any re-drying is a problem and seams are of a real concern.

If you ask ten guys that do the soda blasting you will get ten different answers on how to neutralize and most don't know what they are talking about.

Example: Around Xmas a good Restoration shop on west coast have been using SPI epoxy for a number of years and his first soda job he called me a week later the epoxy is not sticking, I explained to him how to prep, well he stripped the car and the soda guy said don't use epoxy use vinyl wash from Sherwin Williams (acid etch). So this guy bought some and redid the front of car with the acid etch and the other half with epoxy but DID NOT do the neutralizing as I explained. Calls me in January pissed at me because the epoxy is peeling. I asked how the acid etch was doing and he said its peeling also. At that point I suggested that he should be pissed off at the soda blaster more than Sherwin Williams and SPI because the chances of him getting a bad batch from both companies at the same time would be lottery winning odds. (soda blaster said he got bad batches of product)

In the last three years I have herd and seen 100's of similar stories from body shops when paint over soda blasted vehicles.

There is no need to use this stuff as there are media's to fill any situation you need.

My next epoxy tech sheet will say: "If the car has been soda blasted, Please do not use SPI epoxy or Primers"

This is what my tech sheet says now: "This product will not stick to
AiredOut   +1y
Heres a link if any of you are interested in learning about it. Soda blasting has always been a myth in the restoration market, but only the un-informed actally use it, almost always with bad results:

http://spi.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=156&mforum=spi

Low_SST   +1y
hey dan check out thomasnet.com they have a ton of shops that do all sorts of industrial work and there may be some in ME or in NH that do what your looking to do.
groundscr8pr   +1y
Originally posted by customchevy



depends on what your doing and what you wanna do i do it for a living at southern painting co. let me know what you want done and i could tell you the best way of getting it donei want to strip my truck.