Fiberglass Soda Blasting

[Justin B.]

Hello Gang,
I currently own a sandblasting business and was checking out the outcome of a baking soda blast job on both a 61' and a 67'Vette. The 61' looks and feels awesome. The surface feels like it was carefully chemically stripped and then wet sanded with 400 grit paper. No damaged gelcoat anywhere, not even in the engine compartment, soft-top compartment, trunk area, underbody, anywhere. I plan on doing my 58' this way. No factory primer or traces of dirt, its truly awesome. In addition to the equipment that I already have, it is going to cost another 8K-9K for this speciality equipment. I would like to offer this service but I was wanting to get input from you guys before making the big leap. Most people who offer this service charge 150.00 per hour because it actually cost about 125.00 per hour to operate this service. Do you feel that there would be any demand for this service to justify the starting up cost?

[Donald B.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

Curious - how did the '67 turn out?

[Warren F.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

Justin:

I had my '70 coupe done by that method. They (the shop) did a demo where they could take the printing off a cigarette (marlboro example). HOWEVER, when they finished with my car, the surface looked and felt worse than the MOON. The surface was cratered beyond belief! There explanation to me was, "we had to turn the pressure up quite a bit to get rid of the paint and primer". It sounds like you had great success with your vehicles. I believe this method to be good, if properly applied with a lot of patience for the more stubborn painted surfaces to be cleaned. I personally am a bit hesitant to try it again with my current car, an original lacquer craized painted surface. GOOD LUCK.

[Harold #43147]

Strip it

I had a hood and 2 doors done from a guys car I was painting I chemical strip my self. The owner of the car would come by and watch sometimes and he could not belive how much time was being spent doing this. He said he new a place that Soda Blasted says it was the way to go on his insistance (Figured he would speed up the process) he took these parts over to the place and had them done it was a mess craters strand seperation. Not knowing any thing about this process I started to find some things out. What I have heard is it is a very slow process when done right and you can get excellent results. I guess the draw backs are Employees who are in a hurry maybe turning up air pressure and so on. I am not saying this is a bad way to go just the exsperence I have had with it. Other people I have talked to say it worked great I guess its just who is doing it

[Justin N.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

Jud,

I think this depends on the amount of business you can generate in your area. I live just on the outskirts of L.A. and my buddy, Scotty, runs a plastic-media business in a similar area and is crazy busy. I've see everything from old hotrod coupes, Shelby's, and Corvettes to things like antique furniture. Total costs from about $400-600 to roll in a car and have his guys tape it up. If you bring in pieces, it's considerably cheaper. Plastic won't hurt the fiberglass either.

After media blasting my complete 65 GT fastback, and after a total resto, one cold morning I flipped on my heater and media blew all over the interior. It's a real pain to clean them thoroughly after this process, that's why I'm trying Cap'n Lee's for my 67 coupe.

Justin #41362

[Dick W.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

Justin, I believe that you are in the Charlotte area maybe. There is/was a firm doing the media blasting downtown near the new stadium. They did several cars for me with good results. Had a 65, 66, 67, 72, 73, and several more done. Usually cost 5-700 dollars. Down side is cleaning up the media before you started priming. Had very little "fuzzed" glass. This firm did a lot of NASCAR cars when it came time to change sponsors or sponsor paint schemes. My terminal case of NCRS disease keeps me from remembering the name.

[Justin B.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

I have seen the plastic media results and they weren't so hot, very rough as a matter of fact. One thing really good about the soda versus plastic or sand is that it dissolves with water when cleaning it up. I personally had a car of mine media (plastic) blasted about 7-8 years ago from a race shop and it was extremely abrasive to the heavily factory gelcoated areas and all not so heavily gelcoated areas were destroyed to a point were a lot of new gelcoat was needed, alot. I noticed that baking soda will take a good working day to do a full body and you can't use a bunch of air pressure in the process. Plastic media is basically a material good for removing paint from metal surfaces without being very abrasive to the frame or sheetmetal parts. It will not remove rust. It will destroy aluminum. Sand will remove paint and rust but generates alot of heat which causes sheetmetal warpage if not carefully used. Baking soda when properly used is very fiberglass friendly and I just wonder if there is any market for this type of work. Oh yeah, baking soda will not remove body filler (bondo) very easily.

[John Daly]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

Went to a judging school at a well known Corvette resto shop on Long island last week. What he said was basically what the others on this board have already said. Some jobs come out great with the soda/media blast and others come back with craters and pits that require many hours to repair. That's why he has gone back to chemically stripping to have more control over the results.
He said it took about two weeks to do the whole car(1971)....small sections at a time and neutralize the stripper quickly after the paint is gone.........

[Gregory G.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

What grade Bicarb did you use? I use to work for Arm & Hammer and know that there are several grades that have different particle size. This could account for the fact that some times it is too abrasive.

[Chris S.]

Re: Fiberglass Soda Blasting

I researched this quite a bit
I just had all my bolt on body parts done.
I had them do a test spot and went back out and checked it.
On the test spot he dug in too much
So I explained what I was looking for and even if they left the primer on
I could wipe if off or slightly sand it after wards.
After giving them specific instructions - the parts are butter smooth.
Looks and feels like they have been wet sanded with 600
My body goes to the blaster in the next week.
It all depends on your operator and the direction you give them.
My parts look awesome and will require min amount of work.
Made a believer out of me and well worth the money vs stripper and
the time of sanding.
I used Redi Strip in Rochelle IL - ask for Brian -

[Scott Marzahl]

Re: Plastic Bead blasting

I just had my convertible deck lid plastic media blasted. It turned out awesome, a little finishing sanding for clean up and I have it in primer now.
Just like Chris said, give them specific instructions and they should do a great job.