Register now to get rid of these ads!

Soda Blasting Question for Screwtheman

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Chad s, Jun 3, 2007.

  1. Chad s
    Joined: Oct 6, 2005
    Posts: 1,717

    Chad s
    Member

    I know im several hundred miles away, and cant use your services, but since you are the resident Soda Blast guy on the HAMB, I wanted to ask you a quick question.

    My car is scheduled to be soda blasted on Tuesday, and this weekend I told the guy who chopped my car thats that what I was doing, and he immediately told me "stay away from soda blasting". He told me that no matter what they did, they couldnt get the residue off of the car, and primer would just flake off. He said they did the water and vingar thing, and it didnt work.

    I have stipped most of the body of my car (a 47 for coupe) with a DA sander, and the soda blaster is going to do all of the seams, door jams, pitting etc to get it totaly clean. There is some surface rust in pitted areas, as well as some rotted areas in the lower body.

    The guy doing it said they sell a neutrualizing product that will leave clean bare steel to paint on (I forget the name of the product, but he charges $45 a gallon, which is concentrated and needs to be mixed with water). Regardless, now Im really scared. I did some online research, and found many mixed reviews on soda blasting.

    Since there is no need to do any heavy removal of any paint or bondo on this car (since I sanded it all off anyway on the body panels), so there is no issue of heavy heat buildup, am I better off seeing if this guy can use starblast or other media?

    Your advice is greatly appreciated. I am still on the fense, Soda hasnt proven, or misproven itself to me yet, I just want my paint to stick.

    Thanks,
    Chad
     
  2. SpeedRacer2002
    Joined: Jan 11, 2002
    Posts: 777

    SpeedRacer2002
    Member

    blasted my 64 bel air and my buddys 64 gto and we just washed them with viniger and water sanded with 180 bare metal etch primered and the paint is sticking fine after 3 years.
     
  3. screwtheman
    Joined: Mar 24, 2005
    Posts: 845

    screwtheman
    Member

    Chad actually sent this question to me in a PM. But I thought it would be some good info for others regarding soda blasting.

    Soda has been getting a bad rep because people are doing it half assed. I did tons of research before I started the business to make sure I wasn't messing up people's cars!

    Soda is awesome given the right conditions and proper procedure. Soda is like throwing a snowball at a fence- it breaks apart upon impact. Therefore, it doesn't "get into" the metal at all. That's why it doesn't warp panels or hurt glass. But that's also why it doesn't cut rust. Starblast is like throwing a rock at a fence. It's good stuff and I've successfully blasted rusty sheet metal with little/no warpage.

    As far as neutralizing, it is an absolute must. I use a concentrated chemical called HoldTight 102 that I mix in with a pressure washer. Given the price you mentioned, he's probably using the same stuff.

    First, I do a high pressure water only wash down and then I do a second pass using a lower pressure and a diluted mixture of HoldTight as the detergent. The ONLY time I've had an adhesion problem was when I mistakenly didn't put the detergent feed tube down in the HoldTight bucket. That's after doing nearly 40 full car blasting jobs. But he's right, even etching primer will just rub right off if the sodium is left behind.

    After HoldTight has been washed over, you're ready to proceed to priming. Just do your normal degrease/solvent wash prep. HoldTight will also prevent flash rust for 48 hours if it's kept out of the rain. I don't know of any other neutralizing chemicals or procedures. I've heard of just water or water/vinegar... but I don't have any experience with that.

    From the little bit you mentioned, it sounds like your blaster knows what he's doing and you're going to be really pleased with the results. Tell your buddy that he doesn't have all his facts right and there's a reason why soda blasting is mentioned all over TV shows and magazines like Hemmings.
     
  4. Chad s
    Joined: Oct 6, 2005
    Posts: 1,717

    Chad s
    Member

    Thanks!, well that makes me feel a LOT better, but let me throw this into the equasion.

    I have sanded my car to mostly bare steel with a DA. The metal happens to be in pretty good shape. There is rust pitting around the holes where the body trim mounted, and some light rot in the lower rear quarters, and some more serious rot in the lower front cowls (which is going to be cut out and replaced anyway). The floors are already replaced. Otherwise, its all shiny metal.

    Most of the hard work has been done. I want to get all of the rust out of the pitted areas (which really isnt a lot of area), and do a light go-over of the areas I sanded down over a month ago, as im sure some light flash rust that I may not even be able to see is present. I also couldnt get into the seams and door jambs easily with the DA, so thats needs to be blasted.

    I have to have the car towed out to the blaster (he does mobile, but he says the soda will kill any grass and vegetation), and then towed back, which that alone is going to run me around $225 each way.

    The soda blasters rate is $150 an hour, and all that has to be gone over is the body from the beltline down (the roof was totaly stripped when the top was chopped last year, and properly finished), the front and rear fenders, and deck lid. I dont need the hood done either. I dont even know how many hours the job could take.

    I have my new 80 gallon, 5 hp 2 stage Eaton compressor being delivered on Friday, and while its probably not big enough to do some serious work, I think it could handle the light going over my body needs. If I do it myself, I dont care if it takes me a whole weekend to do, I can work at my pace.

    Am I better off just buying a 10 gallon pressure pot blaster (and a protective hood of course), and using starblast to carefuly clean the already stripped metal? I have about 2 acres of land at my grandparent house where I work on my cars, and could put the car out pretty far from the house in a wooded area, and be well far away from any neighbors etc. Since there is no real "stripping" needed other than in the door jambs (which has a few coats of primer and paint, nothing more), I could go very lightly so I dont warp the pannels.

    Im not looking to take any shortcuts, or cheap out, but I could possibly save myself a lot of time (I have to take a day off of work to get this thing to the blaster), and money doing this myself.

    Screwtheman, what do you think?
     

  5. 39 Ford
    Joined: Jan 22, 2006
    Posts: 1,558

    39 Ford
    Member

    Money is harder to come by than time, it seems that you are spending serious money with transportation etc. You can buy a nice sandblaster do the work in a day, and have a nice tool and money left over to buy paint etc. Do it your self.
     
  6. suiside
    Joined: Oct 13, 2005
    Posts: 38

    suiside
    Member

  7. buy the stuff and do it yourself, even if it costs more than planned, you are ahead with experiance and new tools added to the list
     
  8. Chad s
    Joined: Oct 6, 2005
    Posts: 1,717

    Chad s
    Member

    Well guys,I media blasted the car a whiel ago now. I purchased a small 10 gallon pressure blaster for around $100, about 500 pounds of starblast, and it worked out great.

    As for that eastwood bucket blaster, Id pass. You can actually buy a "blast out of the bucket" kit at Home depot , but those things take a lot more CFM than a pressure pot. My 80 gallon 5 HP Eaton did keep up with the pressure blaster, but it did run A LOT. That bucket thing will take a ton of air, so you better have a really big compressor.
     
  9. suiside
    Joined: Oct 13, 2005
    Posts: 38

    suiside
    Member

    so my caddy has about 4 layers of old paint some bondo slapped on and minor rust here and there.. what media should i use? this will be my first time blasting and i am afraid to warp somthin//any help or advice is appreciated..thanx
     
  10. Chad s
    Joined: Oct 6, 2005
    Posts: 1,717

    Chad s
    Member

    Well, It took about 3 days working on and off (the heat!) to mesablast my 47 ford coupe with starblast, using a 10 gallon Clarke pressure blaster from tractor supply. I would have bought a nicer blaster, but it was just for this project. I used the biggest tip, I think it was 3 or 3.5mm. I ran about 100 psi. It takes a lot of air.

    I stripped most of my car with a large 7" Milwaukee, and 5" small makita electric sanders, and then blasted the metal to remove any rust and remaining paint/filler I didnt get off totaly with the sanders. If you had to use a small blaster like I did, with a smaller compressor (as in 80 gallon, true 5hp, compared to a huge industrial unit), and take off 4 layers of paint , you will be there for a long time, and a ton of blasting media.
     
  11. MikeRose
    Joined: Oct 7, 2004
    Posts: 1,583

    MikeRose
    Member
    from Yuma, AZ

    What about a car that has alot of surface rust, but no bondo or paint? What media would I use?
     
  12. Chad s
    Joined: Oct 6, 2005
    Posts: 1,717

    Chad s
    Member

    Well, Im no expert by any means, but my car had some areas that were rusted through. I didnt spend a lot of time on those areas, as I planned on cutting them out and patching them anyway, but I did have plenty of areas that had bad pitting, that was full surface rust and pitting, definately much more than you could sand or wire wheel off. I used Dupont Starblast media, and it worked really well. Its fine grain, and doesnt build up a lot of hear. I regularly checked the metal with my hand, being my first time, but it never got that warm really. I didnt have any heat damage at all.
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.