Soda Blasting Vs. Hand Sanding aluminum bodied vehicle

Soda blasting is used on the chassis, not on the body. Way too abrasive.

 

My panel beater friends inform me any blasting work hardens the metal. It's a no no.

Chemical strippers either by hand or dipped is the way.

 

An alternative is Corn Hybrid Polymer (CHP) Blast Media.

NOTE: This is NOT corn cob blasting media.

CHP has been tested and approved for coatings removal on delicate substrates for aircraft (aluminum skin and radome composites) along with durable substrates as well.

It's non-aggressive i.e. not effective for removing corrosion on steel.

http://www.nstcenter.biz/docs/PDFs/MR2006/MR2006_Thu_20BradBiagini.pdf

Biobased: Corn-Hybrid Polymer (CHP) Blasting

Technical Data & Reports - midvaleind

http://www.adm.com/en-US/products/brands/envirostrip/envirostripxlcornhybridpolymer/Pages/default.aspx

 

I do soda blasting for a living I have never done a Ferrari but I have done a few Jugulars that have aluminum hoods and didn't have any problems. baking soda is not abrasive I have also done aluminum truck bodies with no problems. Hope this helps.

 

the violent action involved leaves, at the microscopic levels, small residual boogers of soda uder edges of the small alloy particles which have been blasted over it..resulting in a coating which CANNOT be cleaned, washed or sanded away...

as ALL modern paints are water based these days...the chemistry is pretty simple here, and the results are a near certainty
eventual lifting of the paint as a result of "contaminated subsrtrate attachment layers"-as the paint shop has called it...

turns out it is essentially the same for steel...given enough time and or heat combined with regular exposure to water....
plastics or composites....really?

 

Aircraft stripper... Nasty and labor intensive. Only way to go.

 

we use dry ice blasting on airplane skins to remove enamel epoxy topcoats. No residue except the removed paint and we have pure aluminum clad alloy skins, way softer than the aluminum they use for cars


if you can find someone who has the equipment... this is the way to go

 

Seen this happen more then I care to mention. Even with the acid etching of years past there were still issues.

Thank you !!!!!

 

you can actually use dry ice blasting to clean wood and drywall. The equipment isnt that rare. They use a portable version to clean restaurants and for mold abatement in houses/apartments. Since the CO2/dry ice sublimates almost immediately all you need to do for clean up is normal primer and paint prep.

 

Yes I have seen a lot of it lately and seems really good

Wish I had a setup

 

you can get a used portable system for about $5k-$8K.

 

I saw many years ago a Cessna 210 being soda blasted. Some residues were left in the aluminum skins overlaps and hard to reach places so after a while it acted as a humidity absorbant with the result of corroded skins & scrapped airframe.
High end aircrafts-fifghter jets use plastic media. More basic aircrafts and helicopters still use chemical paint stripper.

 

I was going to use this for an engine compartment cleanup but I just couldn't arrange to get the car to their facility. One draw back is at that time the minimum quantity of dry ice was $500 so we were trying to arrange my small job to coincide with another job.

It intrigues me but the guys I talked to were using it to clean up industrial plants and nuclear power plants where paint, wiring and other sensitive items were NOT to be affected.

So will it remove paint if you do what?

I worry that high pressure could warp a panel?

 

This is in agreement with what I have heard about soda blasting.

If people have had negative experiences I suspect it had more to do with the specific technique used by that particular blasting guy: pressure, temperature, humidity conditions; specific blast media composition, etc..

 

When I was rebuilding my race engine one of the shops used soda blasting on pistons before having them coated. It always help if you know what you're doing.

 

Actually work harden aluminum?

Blasting an aluminum panel with enough pressure to actually work harden the metal is going to warp and twist the crap out of the panel.

Hitting it with the right media and pressure will be no problem.

Matt

 

This is the tricky part.

I'd probably opt for using an orange-based chemical stripper. Low toxicity, no equipment required & probably less messy than blasting.

I have a client that still gets media particles out of his defroster vents more than 10 years after the car was finished.

 

That's what more than one well known panel beater has told me. They have refused to work on blasted bodies. The alloy used in hand formed race car bodies is a very soft alloy. I still typically see restoration shops using chemicals. I'll probably see Paul Russell or Gary Bobilief in June and I'll ask.

Dry ice I know is very gentle, that might be OK. I have seen a lot of good work done with those.

 

Soda is great for mechanical parts. Just throw it is a wash when done and it all goes into solution and goes away.

 

+1 on the ice blasting. I would be very careful about using chemical stripping agents. It will take you down to bare metal. If that's what you want, great. But that includes any fillers that might have been applied. I would wet sand, myself.

 

Jeff,

What are you trying to strip?

Matt