Soda Blasting????

I've recently heard alot about soda blasting......Perhaps somebody can answer some questions.

How efective is it for removing surface rust?

Does it warp metal like sand blasting?

Any guys actully ever have a whole body shell done? Cost?

Thanks
Kent

 

You need to PM "SoTex" He'll have plenty of answers for you.

 

I got some experience. I put together a mobile soda blaster trailer for a friend with a blasting business. He has done alot of cars/trucks. It will do a beautiful job removing paint, but not rust. It also has a hard time with thick bondo. This stuff is very tame, and can go right over gl***, rubber, chrome, stainless, and will not damage it. Soda will not heat up the surface, and warp sheet metal. Really great stuff, just not for rust. He charges 4-800$$ for a car/truck.

 

Soda will remove some light surface rust. But the same wonderful properties that make it safe for rubber, gl***, chrome, and gel coat keep it from really being able to "cut" through rust. Soda is not an abrasive, the paint is stripped from the soda particle breaking on the surface of the paint. So it will not etch the metal (as a matter of fact, it polishes it slightly) and it will not heat the panel. The only possible risk of warpage is if the air pressure is WAY to high and the blaster doesn't know what they're doing.

If you leave the soda residue on the metal after blasting, it will protect the metal from rusting while you do your body work. But when you get ready to paint you MUST neutralize and wash off the soda or you'll have serious adhesion problems. Just running a DA over it won't work. I pressure wash with a chemical called HoldTight that will neutralize the soda and prevent flash rusting for a couple days. I believe a vinegar/water mixture would neutralize the sodium too, but it will flash rust instantly.

If you have tougher rust, there's a media called StarBlast that is an natural copper clay abrasive that does a beautiful job. But it's still not as hard as sand. The best prep after soda blasting is a quick sweep p*** with StarBlast to etch the metal a little and cut the rust/bondo followed with a good pressure wash of diluted HoldTight.

Other possible blasting media is plastic and, as a last resort, sand. Plastic works very well, but the containment can be a problem and you'll be finding little scoops of media in your car for the next decade. Soda turns to talc on impact and is water soluble so it just washes away.

Some of the disadvantages of soda are the process itself. Even with water mixed in to help, it can be much dustier than any other media. The soda media is about 4x more expensive than other media like StarBlast. It's also a loud process- just from the sheer volume of air being pumped. Finally, it's moisture sensitive that requires some decent equipment. Particularly in high humidity areas. I'm currently running an aftercooler and 2 auto dumping water traps and I'm seriously thinking about adding another water trap.

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