Sodablasting vs Sandblasting

[69FLATBED]

Can someone tell me their opinion on sodablasting compared to sand...I'm ready to start striippng my crew cab for bodywork and have read that soda is the way to go? I see eastwood makes a soda conversion kit for a pot blaster like the one I have but I wanted some of your opinions before I bought it. Since i'm gonna have to have it shipped because I don't think there are any stores around here that carry it I'm thinking it might be expensive. Give me some of your opinions on it... Thanks, Troy.

[fitzwell]

opinion.. sodablasting is NOT the way to do it. Unless every bit of it is neutralized, it will come back & haunt you. Trap it under a coat of epoxy, or primer, eventually it will lift, and it has a bad habit of hiding in body seams, pinch welds, etc. Sand isnt as bad, but if not done carefully it can warp panels & creat general havoc. Add to that the fact that silica dust can kill you (long exposure) and it's less attractive. We've been using a product called Green Lightning lately, and real happy with the results. You can recycle it several times before it completely looses its effectiveness, and at less than 5% "free silica" not anywhere near as bad for you. I still wear a respirator when i do the stuff..


as always,

[HIO Silver]

Each media has its advantages and disadvantages.

Aluminum and glass can be left exposed with soda blasting. It's gentle in terms of agressiveness and won't even wear away body filler. 2x with above as far as needing to get it out of every nook and cranny aftewards. Sandblasting is agressive, textures the metal, and can warp the surface if blasted too agressively. With any media, the appropriate clean up technique has to be used and has to be thorough. I reserve sandblasting for frames and suspension parts - basically anything that I would consider heavy duty. Btw, any machined surfaces (like kinpin holes) have to protected/sealed.

Beadblasting - soft silica, plastic, ceramic grits, walnut shells, etc. breaks down the more that it is used. I recommend using them for surface panels as viable alternatives to sodablasting.

Please use the required safety gear. We want you to be around to enjoy your bump for a loooooong time.

[Calvin Gunter]

Old Blue has been soda blasted since 2008,so far no side effects.
Yes it was messy to clean up in the beginning but me and my body man think it's the way to go.
Check out my pics. in the project updates under My Bucket Update and you can see the before and after.

[70 ranger]

I have had customers bring me perfectly good panels that were sand blasted. More often than not they are heated up and stretched out of shape. The one thing that I really don't like about sand is that if you don't get it all out of every nook and cranny, a few grains can come out later... like when you are painting it! I prefer to use an old fashioned knuckle buster dual action sander to get all the paint off. It is time consuming but you are in control of the heat and you will not warp it.

[68sportcustom]

For body parts and sheet metal, I soda blast almost exclusively. Yes you need to use a pre-paint treatment and be thorough, but that goes for anything you use weather it's stripped, dipped or blasted. As far as the media it self goes, I bought a whole pallet of it and it's lasted pretty well for me.

[Fordman5]

I have heard soda blasting has its place for the thin metals and so forth, while sand blasting has its use and will do fine if the person knows what they are doing. Have you tried walnut. A place here in town uses walnut on my parts and they come out great.