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Soda Blasting and Stripping your restoration

S

scottkell

Donation Time
Dear SAOCA Members,
I want to introduce myself. My name is Scott and I have a mobile soda blasting machine. I can strip a car to the bare metal in a day or less. This process leaves the metal as if it just came out of the press. Soda Blasting does not distort the metal and will not hurt the chrome or glass. As someone who restores cars I know this is the most important part of restoring a car. I would like to be of service to anyone in the Southeast restoring an Alpine. I'll come to you or you can bring it to me.
I have a web www.gatorsodablasting.com
Phone is 706 897 0316
Thanks
Scott
 
wipeout

wipeout

Donation Time
Hey Scott...sounds great...but how could any self respecting Georgian call his business "Gator" anything? LOL :D j/k
 
skywords

skywords

Donation Time
I used walnut shells on my car and spent the next month blowing shell dust out of every nook and cranny. Still had some get in the paint. :( I think with soda a water hose takes care of that right? I know the rusty areas had to be hit with fine sand. Mind you all of this I had done after chemically stripping the entire car. I think if I had it to do over the soda would have worked out better.

Some answers you might post are:

How to remove left over soda?

Does it remove bondo?

Cost?
 
Jim E

Jim E

Donation Time
We had a MGBGT soda blasted, car had a bit of surface rust and the soda did nothing for that, spent a long time blowing bits of stuff out of the MG and it still has bits in it. Did not work out well for this car but then it maybe due to the surface rust or the guy we hired to do the work, anyway I was not impressed with the result. Company we used had a meter on the trigger and charged you for blast time.
 
MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
My brother in law uses a "special" sand that he gets in Tennessee. He stripped a 66 Mustang with it and it didn't distort any panels
 
socorob

socorob

Donation Time
i had an old vw bug blasted with plastic media. it doesnt distort panels either. the guy does old corvettes with it all the time, it doesnt even eat fiberglass.
 
skywords

skywords

Donation Time
The advantage to plastic beads is that they are inert and don't absorb water when stuck in the seams. Walnut shells are like little sponges.
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
blasting and stripping

my personal preference for stripping a car body is dipping. we have had three bodies media blasted and it seems you never get the media out. we had it falling out of the series 5 for several years. it finally got washed out by a flood. our current restoration was dipped. there is nothing on or in it but dust at this point. the fastback was blasted and the shop thought they had everything out. when they started to paint, they found that there was a pocket of media somewhere and it blew onto the front fenders and hood . the car got stripped back by sanding just to get rid of the dirt. the shop that is doing our current restoration is sold on dipping. i have taken many parts to the dipper in the last six months and after seeing what they look like when i pick them up, i'm convinced!
 
skywords

skywords

Donation Time
65beam said:
my personal preference for stripping a car body is dipping. we have had three bodies media blasted and it seems you never get the media out. we had it falling out of the series 5 for several years. it finally got washed out by a flood. our current restoration was dipped. there is nothing on or in it but dust at this point. the fastback was blasted and the shop thought they had everything out. when they started to paint, they found that there was a pocket of media somewhere and it blew onto the front fenders and hood . the car got stripped back by sanding just to get rid of the dirt. the shop that is doing our current restoration is sold on dipping. i have taken many parts to the dipper in the last six months and after seeing what they look like when i pick them up, i'm convinced!
Click to expand...

This dipping sounds wonderful but I have heard they will not except a car with under coating on it. Am I correct? Also how much cabbage to get a car dipped?

A friend of mine restored a B-25 Mitchell bomber at Chino having the entire airframe walnut shelled. They spent months blowing the dust out of the nooks and crannies. When they flew it for the first time, just after rotation the cockpit filled with walnut dust getting into their eyes and distracting them from their duties of flying the airplane. :eek:
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Rick, I'm sure the cost of dipping will vary from location to location, with the service not available in a LOT of places. About ten years ago I made enquiries in Indy. Found one place that does it. About 1250 to dip a body with no undercoating, about another 1250 if it was undercoated. The guys in Ohio were using a place that would do a body with undercoating for about 1250.

I just pressure washed it and painted as there was no rust to deal with.

Bill
 
Jim E

Jim E

Donation Time
The dipped cars I have seen were much nicer, cleaner than the blasted cars I have seen, being the dipped cars come back just bare metal period. Well unless there is rust then they come back holes and bare metal. Seen a couple dipped cars in Ohio you could read the paper thru.
 
S

scottkell

Donation Time
Soda Blasting is still different from Media Blast

I still must defend the Soda Blasting. It is different from Media ( Walnut shells or Plastic beads). The soda actually explodes into a very fine powder. Thus blowing it out is not an issue. Also, you must pressure wash before painting. The soda dissolves in the water and rinses out. Nothing is left to get into the paint. Plus this system is usually mobile so there is likely someone within a 100 miles or so to come to you.
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
dipping a body

the dipper that we use is in cincinnati. he does dip cars with undercoating. he does scrape a lot of it off before dipping ,which adds to the cost. it cost somewhere between 1100 to maybe 1700 to dip a sunbeam depending on what has to be done. the entire car is clean and the rust is neutralized. that's a big thing to me.
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
socorob said:
When you wash it after, wouldn't the water make it start to flash rust?
Click to expand...

Yes it would. At least in this climate. A person should use of the phosphoric acid wash powders in the wash. They prep the metal for painting, do not require rinsing and will allow the car to dry without rusting and give you a few days to primer.

Bill
 
jumpinjan

jumpinjan

Bronze Level Sponsor
No, its steamed cleaned. The hot water will evaporate very quickly. Metal conditioner (phosphoric acid) is a metal surface cleaner. Some products say to rinse with water, some say to wipe dry.
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
dipping

jan,
doug has already told me to prepare for a day of using scotch bright pads on our car?????
 
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