Walnut shell blasting question..

Will blasting a car with walnut shells remove rust??, or just the finish. I know that media blasting will not take out surface rust, but are walnut shells considered "media". WTF? Thanks

 

I think walnut would just finish it. The best medias you can use would be Glass, that would be at the top of the list, Baking Soda and then Coal. Coal is going to leave pits here and there but primer will fill most of them in. Glass will leave you with a surface ready for fuckin paint! Glass is awesome but it costs a lot and doesn't break down. I wouldn't even do it in your shop even if you plastic off everything. Do it outside on some concrete so you can sweep most of it up afterwards and throw it away. Baking Soda is almost as good as glass but it takes more of it so they're kinda equal in price. Coal is dirt cheap, it's the cheapest of all but it leaves pits. I buy my coal for $11 per 100lbs where glass is more like $45 for 30lbs. It takes about 1,000lbs to do a car.

Also with glass you don't have to worry about it tagging your chrome or stainless, it won't damage it. It will only rip your paint right off. It might still etch glass so I'd still tape up.

I've priced it almost each time and it costs the same amount of money to take a car down with a DA (with the cost of sandpaper) as it does to blast with coal. I've used coal twice and glass numerous times. I prefer glass.

Don't use sand. I think most places are banned from selling it now days anyway but some still do. Silicosis is some bad shit man.

 

Oh, and glass hurts, like a motherfucker. It hits surfaces and bouces back at you at almost full velocity so cover up.

 

We had a guy down here in Florida that used walnut shell and glass combined, and it worked real well on a 40 Ford truck cab we had done. It took all the rust and paint off the cab.

 

Thanks guys. In my mind, I was pretty sure that the walnut blasting wasn't rough enough to attack the rust spots. Stu

 

Walnut shell is best for burnishing metal to a somewhat shiny finish. I've not blasted with it, but in a vibratory finishing machine it will take off some paint after a few hours, but it doesn't have the cutting power for rust.

 

We use it on 20 -30 year old ARMY trucks to the tune of several hundred a year.
Yes it will remove surface rust but not the nasty dug in stuff, we use a needle scaler for that or cut the offending part out.
Walnut does leave a good profile for paint and you can mix in some glass for a better rust removal .
We have used.
Soda- too clean and cant get the shit to stop bleeding out.
Garnet-works great damned pricey.
Glass- good cutter but also tough on anything but metal.
Black beauty-works great but removes too much -enviro concerns.
Walnut-good happy medium, cuts good, leaves a profile, landfills like it.
not too pricey either.