Working on stripping the 6+ layers of paint off my 1955 F-100. Has anyone ever used a soda blaster for paint removal and if so what make and model. I am looking at the 40lb Harbor Freight model. It seems those who have used them liked them, but I am not sure on their effectiveness on this much old and newer paint. Any opinions or suggestions would be great.

Pat

 

I have the Harbor Freight 110 lb sand blaster, it works ok. I changed the ceramic nozzle with a different brand and worked much better. I have thought about converting it to soda. Let me know if it works on that old paint and what type of compressor you use.

 

I have no clue about the soda's effectiveness. But I can say that I feel your pain about all those layers of paint. My truck had 6 layers of coating (starting with the factory red epoxy all the way to the top layer which was some sort of enamel from hell that laughed at aircraft paint remover and sanders). I used black diamond sand from Tractor Supply for mine. It worked okay, but was very slow going on that top layer of paint. Here's my advice that will save you tons of time. Get yourself some of those flapper discs for an angle grinder. Wear a good respirator and eye/face protection. You will be amazed at how quickly that flapper disc can remove the top layers. Then clean it up with your sandblaster. It was hands down the most effective method for me in tackling 6 layers of paint that was honestly so thick, it looked like somebody just slathered on a coat of bondo over the whole truck. I still have to tackle my bed, and I will definitely be using that approach for it.

 

I have been through this a few times. I just simply take cab/body down to a local powdercoating shop, and have them blast the whole thing, I usually get it back in 3 days looking new, and only costs about $80-$100
After the cost of sand paper, the mess, time, etc, I find it to be extremely worth it.

I have one of the pressurized sand blasting tanks that HB sells


But I find this little guy and a bucket of sand to be MUCH more effictive:


Cost about $12 at home depot years ago

 

Soda blasting can make it tough to get paint to stick -- see here: THE H.A.M.B. -Soda Blasting pros/cons

 

Yours and my experience are totally different. First, I actually have one of those siphoning sandblasters like in the picture above. My neighbor actually gave it to me. It took me about five minutes to realize that it just didn't have the ability to cut the paint off my truck. It just didn't have the force and velocity to do the job. Secondly, I wish I had a local powdercoating shop that would have done my whole cab in 3 days for $80-$100. Trust me, I would The only option for me here locally was a monument company that does sandblasting on the side. I took 2 rear fenders, a hood, and a tailgate to them back in the spring. They charged me $250. They quoted me a price of $500-$750 plus to do my cab, if not more.

 

Since we are talking about soda blasting...I want to blast my factory aluminum intake '95 5.8L it's kinda cruddy. Can I use different media besides sand through a small gun like previously mentioned? I have only used sand and the black diamond stuff before. I read that walnut shell is good on aluminum? After blasting I am gonna spray it with VHT silver or silver wheel paint. Something like that.
edit: I will protect the machined surfaces of course.

 

For the pressure tank, I have talked to 2 others about it too, both swear that it is superior. The problem with mine was it kept clogging, and I would have to go over and shake the hell out of it before it would start producing sand again. After people started telling me how awesome they were, I cleaned mine out, and upgraded the air dryer in my compressed air system (I had pipes running through the garage. Dirty air for tires, air nozzles and what have you, oiled air for tools, and dried air for spray equipment.) thinking MAYBE my sand/glass was getting wet. No change. The gun - never a problem. Even the gun built into my HF blast cabinet pales in comparison.

What is the CFM rating on your compressor? What PSI were you using? Type of sand?
Mine is a 6.9? Which hardly keeps up, I run it between 90-110psi when blasting, I use glass and home depot "do not use for blasting" kiln dried play sand.

For the blasting shops, I dont know what the population is like out your way but I'm 40 miles east of Los Angeles, population is quite high, and service shops are everywhere.

I first looked into having someone do some work, when I has an outboard I needed to blast and didn't want to spend a week blasting it myself. I asked around and found "the best!" shop wanted $450 to blast it, + a degrease/cleaning fee.

I then looked for a powdercoater, and found a shop locally, and took my crate of parts to him. I know before metal get powercoated, they usually blast it. I figured it was my way to go. $75 for the blasting. I told him about the other shop he said "Oh they weren't going to degrease anything, they would have blasted it off just like I did"

I then saw a dump truck body he had in the parking lot, and asked him how much he charged to do it - $250
Like this one:
http://www.itchmo.com/wp-content/upl...ment-truck.jpg

He has done my car bodys, frames, and more of my outboards than I can count.
The most I have ever paid for anything was $120

 

Hey Bigb9000,
I had my truck soda blasted here outside Austin. $1300 for the whole cab, bed, interior, etc.. - It took them 3 full days plus some..
We must be talking about apples & oranges. Mine was sodablasted - took them forever & they used a lot of expensive soda in the process. Nobody wanted to do it for $1300 - found one guy with time on his hands..

Ben in Austin

 

Okay. 2 observations:

1) You guys in Southern California have it made when it comes to resources and services. My aunt just moved to Knoxville from Thousand Oaks. Our whole family has laughed at their adjustment to "reality". But at least she isn't paying those astronomical mortgage and tax payments now.

2) You're either totally B.S.ing us about those prices, or your sandblaster is Bill Gates in disguise and doesn't need the money. Instead, he's just trying to satisfy some sort of sandblasting fetish.

 

That looks like one expensive machine...
Why is my local guy so much less?
I know a guy that does it in his yard (for his own cars, and only his own) his sand tank has got to be 40 feet high, it towers over his garage. He can get a truck cab done in a matter of hours...

I can go on for days about mortgages. Why someone would pay $500,000 for a 2.5 bedroom house and 1/16 of an acre is beyond me.

Anyway, I have know the guy for a few years, I was younger at the time, he could have just be helping a kid out, and now he just knows me. I always pays cash, and don't complain. I took a 95 caprice police body to have blasted (exterior only) someone at his shop backed a forklift into the quarter panel, he was pretty worried about it, but I let it slide.
He does get all pissy with me when I want him to blast plastic parts "NO! I told you before, they are a pain in the !@! and it'll take to long"

Maybe it just a matter of having great equipment?

 

I've read a lot of posts like the one Ross posted. I wouldn't soda blast myself for the reasons stated.

I also hate sandblasting because it's hot, dirty and a pain to set up and clean up. Sand will be everywhere. Also, if you don't have experience blasting sheet metal you can warp the metal pretty easy and then you're in for a whole lot of work. I blasted two cars, bodies and frames, earlier this year myself because I didn't have the money to have someone else do it. I used my neighbor's home made pressure blaster using regular playground sand because it's cheap. I bought the sand that's packaged in a paper bag, the stuff in plastic bags was way too moist. I wouldn't use Black Beauty or any other slag type media in a pressure pot, especially if you don't have any experience blasting sheet metal. The stuff is super aggressive, I only use it in my siphon feed system in my blasting booth because the siphon feed system is fairly wimpy.

Before blasting with plain sand do a search of silicosis. It's a nasty affliction and something to seriously think about before using sand. I live on a farm and blasted in an open area with good breeze and a good respirator. I only did one car at a time about 2-3 months apart so I felt relatively safe. I wouldn't want to have any long term exposure. I did however work in a truck shop for about 4 years when I was younger blasting trucks all day, averaging probably a day every other week. Many times a few days in a row and I do remember wearing a respirator but I don't remember if it was on fresh air hook up but I doubt it. 20 year later I'm still kicking.

 

Yes Walnut shells is good for soft metals, I believe there was another media that was good but cant think of it off hand. as far as nozzle size it is based on CFM air available and size of media. ( I Think ) Sorry I never used soda blaster and the company I checked into to do my panel wanted $1600.00 so needless to say Aircraft remover, wire wheel and lots and lots of free time stripped my body down. I had a mustang fender sand blasted years ago....I think the were using 3/4 minus in there gun. I had to buy another fender.

 

So much good information. I am in Austin, Texas also and it is pretty expensive for blasting here on vehicles. There is a place that will blast, prime and paint the complete frame for 125.00.

 

Some of the prices being thrown around sound way too good. $125 would barely pay for a gallon of good epoxy primer. I'd ask a lot of questions and ask for references from people who have had there projects done by these companies. Anyone can blast sheet metal, only some one with experience can blast it without warping the heck out of it.

Almost ten years ago I had a complete panel truck, inside and out, body and doors only, blasted and epoxy primed for $600 and I thought got a really good deal. The guy who did it for me blasts everything from sheet metal to heavy steel and has a good reputation. He did a great job, absolutely no warpage. My kid just had a farm implement done by another person, some one I've used on a few other projects and it coast him $1500, the guy said the epoxy primer was a major part of the cost.