I need a little advice on all 4 of my 51 steel fenders. I'm not sure if I should sandblast, sodablast, or I'm open to some ideas to prep my fenders for some serious bodywork. I'm going to have to do some weld patching and bodywork. If you have any ideas, bring um on! Thanks.......

 

If htere`s any amount of rust I carefully sandblast.

 

I personally would not blast any panels you plan on metal working with any hard media like sand or shot. It shatters on impact imbedding itself into the surface of the metal turning your fenders into metal backed sandpaper. Plastic media, walnut shell, soda would be a far better choice in blasting media. If they were mine tho, unless I just happened to have a good sized blaster and compressor sitting around I'd use 3M "Clean and Strip" disks to strip them. Shouldn't take over an hour per fender about as long as setting up for blasting and will do near as good a job as blasting, but cheaper. Do one at a time, do the body work, prime and go on to the next one.

 

I have been using abrasive blasting for years but I use the Black Diamond abrasive media which is made from the cinders produced by coal burning power plants. It costs more than sand but I have not had a problem with it combining with or fusing into the metal. It is supposed to be much harder than sand.

I am however interested in this soda blasting as I understand it leaves a much smoother finish. I have heard that it requires a smaller nozzle on the blaster than is used for the same volume and pressure when blasting with sand or Black Diamond. Does anybody have a source for this stuff at a reasonable price? How about a brand name or manufacturer?

 

Eastwood is selling the soda media along with a soda blasting conversion kit for their blasting pot. Northern tool is also carrying the soda. The secret to soda blasting is that the air needs to be very dry, needs more water removal than just a water separator to keep the soda from clumping.

 

I had most of my panels blasted with plastic..blasted is probably not the correct term because the media came out of the operators nozzle in a very high volume, at very little pressure..all the old paint and SOME of the rust came off real well. This method also left some plastic on the panels , which helped in preserving them till I got around to working on them..a bonus in my neck of the woods. Some minor sandblasting ws performed later in spot areas with a siphon blaster.
I plan on stripping the cab very soon. Just finished building a cab cart ,to roll the beast inside and out while the MESS is kept outside. I plan on using liquid stripper for 75% ofthe job and a combo of DA sander and aluminum oxide material I salvaged from the blast cabinet when I serviced it last'.I'll run it thru the siphon blaster at the driprail area.

Dave, I have heard of several companies around that will come to your house and Sodablast your project! The equiptment is large and expensive..making it not-so freindly for the homeowner ,but lucrative for a business person..cleaning graffitti from all imaginable places, and prepping surfaces for fresh paint.Do a google search and see what you come up with.
jorgholio,..hope this helps...Good Luck!!.. Ps See reamer for patch panels!

 

Would glass have the same affect on the metal as sand or shot? I am nearly ready to get my truck blasted. I think stripping the entire truck with the strip discs or chemical would be very time consuming and labour intensive, that is why I plan on getting the body blasted but am apprehensive about using sand because of the warping potential more than anything.

 

I sure wouldn't go to much trouble or expense in prep for major body work to them. Take a sanding disc to the area to remove the paint and rust and cut out and replace the patches. After the patches are finished do what is necessary to the surface of the rest to ready for primer and finish.

 

I haven't seen it done, but supposedly the newest "medium" for blasting is dry-ice. Being a big kid at heart, I think I'd just like to play with the stuff and use the sanding disc on the fenders.

 

I got a free bag of soda media from a supplier, and used it in my cabinet. Man, it was great! It takes the paint off, but doesn't touch the metal or chrome. But, it doesn't touch rust either, which was fine for me, since I just did the interior stuff.

R

 

This could be considered off topic I guess unless you consider the topic to be removing paint and rust. I am just wondering, has anybody tried using electrolysis? I built a tank and I power it with my DC welder. I have used it to clean up gears on old machinery and it works great. It doesn't pit or take away any metal. It is kind of slow though. I just set it up and let it go for however long it takes. It doesn't need constant attention. It's better off left alone because otherwise it's like the old addage, A watched pot never boils.

 

Dave, a couple of members on here just did the electrolysis method,
on smaller parts though. Some mentioned hearing of someone submerging a complete frame..sounds like a very good method for rust removal..nothing mentioned of painted surfaces though.
I guess it comes down to the desire to refinish a complete panel for paint prep, or just a patch panel ,small repair.
The visual results seen with the electrolysis were amazing.
How about it ?, anybody tried removing paint on a complete fender with this method?

 

electrolosis will not remove paint, only rust.

 

Exactly. For paint, I would have to say the best techniques I have seen are the soda blasting, or good old fashioned Aircraft Paint remover. I'm using the remover on my firewall right now. Messy, dirty, nasty, terrible job, but it's a small area. Years ago we did an entire Rolls Royce that had vandalism damage. Took us all summer, but the Rolls had an aluminum body, and that was the only "safe" way we knew of.

I think if I were doing a 100% frame-off, and stripped the frame of EVERYthing, I would use electrolysis, building a tank the frame would fit in. It would get into every little nook and cranny, period! But then, you would pretty much have to dip the frame to prime it - otherwise, wherever didn't get paint, would immediately rust. Also years ago, we had a racecar that raced at Le Mans, that we restored. We had the entire body sort of "acid-dipped" that took everything off - bondo, etc, then had it freon tanked for cleaning, then electrostatically primed. Very expensive, and some have told me due to the environmental control, VERY hard to find a place that can do that today. But, this was a $500,000 car, and no expense was spared. Took 5 years to restore the body!

I'm getting ready to do my first electrolysis rust removal - just deciding what size tank to build. I plan to use rebar pieces around the outside for the sacrificial metal. Just a matter of finding time. The results I have seen are really impressive! It's funny that in 30 years of removing rust, I have never seen it first-hand. Well, THAT'S going to change!!

R

 

Will electrolysis work for removing stubborn rust from chrome as well, without affecting the condition of the chrome?