Soda blast vs Sand Blast

Posted on: May 15, 2020 in Tech Tips

You have options for stripping paint from a car, including sand blasting, which is a messy, abrasive process that warps metal, roughs up the car surface and scratches usable panels. You have to be careful to make sure you don’t get sand in certain areas of the car, especially where there is moisture that can lead to rust.

The time for a sandblasting job compared to soda blasting is significantly longer because you have to cover or remove every part you don’t want stripped. With soda, you can have direct contact on mirrors, rubber, glass and chrome without worrying about permanently changing or damaging the surface.

With sand, you have to disassemble every part and component of the car that you don’t want to blast because the sand will alter, damage and rough up the surface. The time you spend prepping, covering and removing parts to protect them could be spent on something else when you choose soda blasting.

The actual cost of sandblasting might be cheaper, you need to think about what your time is worth and if you would be better off doing other tasks (and making money) while someone else blasts the car and strips it in one shot. Even paying someone to prep that car before sandblasting is generally not a feasible solution either because of the high cost of labor and over-head involved.

The after-blast mess is no walk in the park either. It’s a physical process that can take a lot of your time away from other projects or cost you in labor to have someone else do the task for you. Sand is a hard material that doesn’t wash away easily like soda (sodium bicarbonate) does.

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