Soda blasting?

[Jdh]

Hi all, spent the last week in my new 65 globetrotter gutting it, now its time to get all the old crappy paint out of the interior, I'm planning on taking it to a guy to soda blast the whole inside, I'm sure some folks on here have some opinions on this, and I'd love to hear them. Because I'm just winging this and have no idea what I'm doing.

[Minno]

Originally Posted by Jdh

Because I'm just winging this and have no idea what I'm doing.

That describes a lot of us!!!

My boss is big into boats, and when I was sandblasting my frame, he suggested soda blasting because it would not ruin the aluminum in case I had overspray with the sand blaster. I never tried it, as I had a lot of rust to clean off the frame, and he did tell me soda blasting would take forever on heavy rust, if it could even get theough it all the way. Based on his recommendation, it should do ok on the inner skins.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Jdh

Hi all, spent the last week in my new 65 globetrotter gutting it, now its time to get all the old crappy paint out of the interior, I'm planning on taking it to a guy to soda blast the whole inside, I'm sure some folks on here have some opinions on this, and I'd love to hear them. Because I'm just winging this and have no idea what I'm doing.

Baking soda as an abrasive blasting media was first used for restoring the Statue of Liberty, and is widely used for removing paint from fiberglass boats. It removes the paint without doing any damage to the underlying substrate (in your case, the aluminum).

Although it's Sodium Bicarbonate, just like the box of Arm&Hammer in your fridge (and made by the same company), it's not quite the same stuff. Don't use the leftover soda for cooking!

Air pressure for blasting with baking soda is anywhere between 100psi to 150psi. The baking soda crystals explode on contact with the painted surface, creating a very fine dust that gets into every damned thing, including smoke, CO, and LPG detectors. Remove your detectors beforehand, even if no one is blasting near them, so that you don't have to buy new ones when the work is done.

Remove anything with fabric, too, because the dust will get into upholstery, drapes, etc. It will wash out; baking soda is water-soluble, but the less is in the trailer the less you'll have to clean up afterwards.

[Jim Johnson]

Soda blasting will etch the aluminum
Jim J

[Aage]

Originally Posted by Jim Johnson

Soda blasting will etch the aluminum
Jim J

Ut-oh.

That's kind of a party-killer, ain't it?

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Jim Johnson

Soda blasting will etch the aluminum
Jim J

How bad will it etch it? Would a 600 grit sandpaper take the etching down? If so they could sand and polish (if that's the plan) the inner skins after soda blasting... but if it etches deep then it could go through the clad.

[Someday'59]

Just curious... if you were planning to put Zolatone on the interior walls after sand blasting then would there be any harm in the aluminum being etched?

Sandblasting is something I have thought about often. It's one of those things on my list of "If I did it again...then I would probably...(use sandblasting.)" After spending hours, days, months, on stripping latex that was over the Zolatone I often think we would have been better off just sandblasting all of our paint off.

[Denis4x4]

I had some vintage car body parts soda blasted and was very disappointed. Took the same parts to a sandblaster that did a great job. This guy understands sand blasting better than most. He's done several custom aluminum body parts to remove DP 90 and the finished job looks like brand new aluminum. However, he isn't cheap!

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Someday'59

Just curious... if you were planning to put Zolatone on the interior walls after sand blasting then would there be any harm in the aluminum being etched?

Sandblasting is something I have thought about often. It's one of those things on my list of "If I did it again...then I would probably...(use sandblasting.)" After spending hours, days, months, on stripping latex that was over the Zolatone I often think we would have been better off just sandblasting all of our paint off.

If you are planning on painting it then why strip it?

After working to strip the vinyl off of just the inside of the door I would not attempt to strip it off of the inside of a trailer....just speaking for myself here... I think it would be easier and may be about the same price (when time if factored in) to just buy new sheets of alclad, remove the old interior panels and use them as templates to cut new walls out of fresh aluminum.