Any one try it?

After seeing Gints Rust-o-ration, it makes me want to blast mine just in case.

I did the Longs and theyre OK, but hidden rust scares the hell out of me.

Soda will not damage like sand or chem-strip, and leaves no residue or etch.

No warped fenders and no acid between panels.

It will not remove bondo or scale, but will make it show its ugly face.

PS (Its not expensive or harmful to the enviroment.)

It's also very very very very very very very soft. I've tried soda blasting engine cases and it doesn't do much of anything. It's got pretty specific applications. If I were going to blast anything on a chassis, I think I'd use plastic media or walnut shells.

I've never used soda. I thought soda left a basic (pH wise) residue.

You might want to have a look at CO2 blasting. CO2 sublimates on impact (goes from frozen solid to gas with no liquid phase) leaving no residue. It's also pretty tough and will typically strip/clean most solid surfaces.

Good luck,
Kevin

CO2 takes specialized equipment doesn't it?

Yes. You need a blaster that is designed specifically for C02. Basically it's got a hopper into which you chuck a piece of dry ice. The dry ice is chopped up into the appropriate size for blasting.

Actually after writing that I realize who simple the process really is. By now, C02 blasting has been around for quite a while, there may be some low tech version of the ice handler that a at home geek could use. I've only monkeyed with the industrial type stuff.

Have fun,
Kevin

I had a hood with a lot of surface rust blasted with soda - PO had removed about 50% of the paint and then left it outside. Looked very good after blasting - clean metal and no warping.
Johan

The part I like is it's safe enough for my airplane and will not rust right away, like sand blasting.
Ive seen 10+ classics SBed with no side effects.
I saw a 57 Thunderbird that was restored then the decided to fix the floorpans.
They sandblasted underneath and the sand went thru the holes and etched the glass and every thing else inside.
This was a professional shop too. SAD!

I am always looking for betterways to do the tough stuff.

I have a patent on CO2 solid particle cleaning of turbo machinery....

Usually the CO2 systems use pellets. You either buy a machine which makes the pellets (very expensive) or you mail order CO2 pellets and they come UPS...

On the speed channel, there is a restoration show called... damn! something, something garage. Show basted out of Toronto, Canada at a restoration and classic car sales shop.

Anyhow, all the cars that I have seen them do, they do a soda blast first, clean it out and roll-lock the body clean (to remove any finger print oil) prior to etching primer. After that if there is cancerous parts, they cut it out and weld in new, the re-etch prime the panel.

Anyways, the soda blast does not harm glass will take off surface rust, but if there is bad rust you need to spot blast with a sandblaster, or take care of it another way (cut and patch).

Dream Car Garage. AWESOME show! I say them soda blasting a purple Hemi Challenger. Exactly as Travis described, they do it right! First soda, then other media.

Too bad they keep showing the same reruns (L88 Corvette restoration) over and over on the speed channel.

Mine was soda stripped over 6 years ago - no lingering effects or residue (that I can see)

Hi,
9 magazine is doing a restoration on an older 911 and they used soda blasting on it. The articles they do are pretty abreviated and I don't think they said how satisfied they were with this procedure but it might be worth a letter or phone call to get their opinion.
Cheers, Elliot

Nice Mt914, Realy Nice.