Sandblasting: Pros? Cons?

[ChrisA]

In my area we have a shop called Soda Blasters. They use high pressure and baking soda for blasting. It doesnt harm the metal at all. Check your yellow pages, my shop will come to your car and do the job on the driveway. They did the engine bay in my dad's Olds Cutlass and it was awesome. Even if they hit non metal parts it didnt hurt. Or you could take smaller items to them as I did on suspension pieces and wheels.

[Ares240Z]

I use bead blasting on a daily basis, as long as you are careful, have the proper amount of pressure on the house, use the right blasting material, and don't fall asleep it should be ok, use quick, horizontal strokes over the piece you are blasting, also if possible, remove the piece to blast and place it in a blasting cabinet, it will save a lot of room and clean up, not to mention you can get much more individualized, and do a better more thorough job.

[fatones]

I just had my whole car done by a guy that uses plastic media and glass beads. The plastic media was used for the outer skin and thinner metal since the platic is less prone to warping the metal. Also another thing he told me was the plastic media removed undercoating much better than the glass beads. I thought he was crazy until he demonstrated this in his shop. The glass beads seemed to deflect off of the rubber while the plastic penetrated and took it right off. For the areas like the door jams and firewall he used the glass beads to etch the metal. Then all I had to do was wipe the surface down and shoot it with DP90LF epoxy primer. For the skin I just used my DA with 80 grit to get the primer to stick. I am hooked on sand blasting, it's so much easier! Fatones