I've got a set of steel wheels that need to be refinished. I've run them through my electolysis tank to neutralize the rust, but they still need some cleanup prior to painting. Which will give me the best surface for painting, with the least amount of additional work, bead blasting or soda blasting? Second question, who in Central/Northern California offers these services? Thanks, gary
Bead or silica will give you a surface for the primer to grab on to. Soda is good for thin metal. It will not remove rust. Ever hear of walnut shell's? It's 'green friendly'.
Not true. Check the attached video. I saw this car in person after soda blasting. It was rust free and just as green friendly as walnut shells. Plus soda blasting gives you some time before you have to prime the bare metal. Check the photo section where they did heavy rust removal on a '33 sedan delivery. And I do not work for or have any financial or business intrest in the company. http://www.sotexsodablast.com/Sotexvideo.html
I've used walnut shell, before. There's even a hundred pounds of it sitting on my porch right now. It didn't really do the job that I was hoping, I still had to go over the part with a wire brush. There's no rust on the wheels after they go through the electrolysis tank but that leaves an oxide residue, and there's still some old paint and gunk on them. It's too hot and I'm too lazy to clean them up mechanically. I've been putting off buying a blast cabinet, waiting to buy a decent one, but maybe I'll just by a POS from Harbor Freight until I find what I want. Thanks, gary
I'd bead blast them and be done with it. The only issue I've seen with the HF bead blast cabinets is that they are too small to do a lot of things. it wouldn't be that hard to build your own blast cabinet, parts and plans are readily available. I've found in the past if you hinge the glass and cover the inside with saran wrap you keep from etching the glass and having to replace it. You have to replace the saran wrap on a regular basis but it saves the glass.
saw a guy use the lower part of a "plastic" barrel for blasting his wheels. pm wheelkid and ask him how they do it.