I would like to know more about this process. Iv'e heard that some companies use plastic beads to cut down on warpage. My car doesn't have any rust just a lot of paint.(5 layers) How about prices? I live in the St.Louis area so if anyone knows anyone good in the area let me know.Tell me about your experience with this stuff. Thanks.
Plastic media is probably the best route to go to take off paint. Usually the plastic will take off the paint and any light rust. It will not take off undercoating or old body filler. If there is any serious rust or rot, they will hit that area with another abrasive. Usually sand or walnut shell. The nice thing about media is 1. it doesnt heat up the panels like sand. 2. it doesnt break the surface of the underlying steel. I wish my pics would show the difference between the sand blasted areas compared to the media balsted surfaces.
Out here, in the hill country, there's a great shop called Abernathy&Sons Restorations. They get all the vehicles & other projects from a large area in these parts. They've charged us $65 an hour. Usually takes 'em about 3-4 hours for a sedan body, '31 A. They use an awesome media produced by DuPont, I think it's called StarBlast. We bought 3, 50 lb. bags from them, for our blasting cabinet. The best stuff I've ever used, better than the glass media we had before. That's just my .02, also.
Do you use this in a bead blast cabinet? I just bought a new cabinet and will be getting media soon. Just need to know how it works. Surely I can find it in Dallas area.
I do soda blasting and star blasting. Soda blasting as the same advantages as plastic blasting except soda isn't an abrasive: it won't damage rubber, glass, chrome, or gel coat. Another advantage is it is water soluble. So a good pressure washing keeps you from finding blasting media in nooks of your car for years to come. The soda residue can provide a corrosion resistant protection if you aren't going to paint for a while. But if precautions aren't taken before priming and painting, you may have adhesion problems down the road. It will also take light surface rust off, but it won't cut heavy rust. That's why I also run StarBlast. StarBlast is an abrasive made by DuPont. It's very low dust compared to other media and much more aggresive than soda. But relatively soft compared to sand. I would only be slightly worried about heating the panels on thin stuff with StarBlast. Unlike soda, it will etch the metal a bit. Soda media costs roughly 4 times more than StarBlast. But the soda is such a "cleaner" process, that it offsets the problems of having to contain the StarBlast. I've found pricing to vary wildly. For an "outside only" job on a passenger car, my super rough estimate is $650. But it really depends on what I'm blasting, where I'm blasting (how much containment do I need to worry about) and how hard/easy the coating comes off the workpiece. I've got just a little more info on my work in progress website. I just started this business a couple months ago and I've done tons of research.
I had the cab,doors and all the front end metal on a '53 F100 plastic media blasted and was charged $50.00 and hour but Mississippi cheaper than most places.It's been a couple of years but I think it was around $125.00.I made a rotisserie out of 2 engine stands and some scrap metal and delivered it with the cab mounted,saved him some time and trouble so I got a break.I plan to have my '58 Ford done.Only problem is as stated stuff gets in every nook and cranny and falls out at the worst time.I blew it out with air and it still came out.I bought 5 gallons of mineral spirits and sprayed it everywhere i could and finally got most of it.Next time i'll leave it on the trailer and drive around on P.O.S. Mississippi back roads and shake it out.
I found a guy here in Augusta that just went out of buisness and he will not do anymore Soda blasting but wants to sell his "Soda Pot", says it costed him $5000 and he had to buy a Construction compresor to keep up with it. He was telling me it takes this special "Pot" to do it right. Are you telling me you can use soda material with a traditional sand blasting machine and the star material as well?? The only other guy in town wants $1300 to blast my sons 56 Chevy body inside and out and I pick it up bare metal, brought to him ready for blasting on a trailer no parts attached, glass, window mech's, nothing!! Am I a little wrong to think this is a little high?? Hey "screwtheman" you are in the state of S.C. , anyone in columbia you would recomend??? Or is the stuff you use able to run through a sand blaster, is so I'll invest in a blaster and at least get a tool out of the deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man, prices on this stuff seem to be all over. I talked to one guy and he wanted $1000. I thought that was pretty high. Thanks for all the info guys. keep it coming.
You get what ya pay for! Soda Blasting is not much more, pricewise than other methods of media blasting, but a hell of alot safer. No chance of warping any panals, and washes away with soap and water. And it will take every thing off, but heavy rust. I've used alot of differant medias, and they all have there place, but Soda Blasting is definatly the best for paint removial.
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