Soda blasting fiberglass?

[Bigdogtrucker]

Anybody ever have it done? Local company near me does high end "50s/"60s Vettes a lot. Gonna have my R600 hood done, seems a lot easier then trying to sand or chemical strip it.

[41chevy]

I had our Scarab soda blasted and they literally took of the clear coat and color coat and left the original gel coat intact. They were the same people who did 

Corvette bodies and Fiero urethane body panels.  was very "gentle" on the hull.

[Bigdogtrucker]

Guy said 140- per hour, will take no more than two hours depending how much paint is on it. 

[gearhead204]

should work, it doesn't etch window glass .......not quite sure how you get it out of the stress cracks ?  

[Vladislav]

My paint guy told me to not apply chemicals on the fiberglass and I didn't try sandblasting having my own.

So I bought excentrical sander and have it mostly done. 

Although stress cracks that were mentioned above took way more of a labour than removing the paint layers.

The hood itself cost me nearly $350 locally and to the moment I've spent nearly two working weeks together with a helper to get it ready to go to the paint shop.

[AZB755V8]

I had it done to a fiberglass KW sleeper top. One of the old Aerodyne's for my Superliner, to get the Aussie look. The guy that did the soda blast knew his stuff. Yes he did Vett's and anything else. He could use gravel down to walnut shells and had it all. The soda does work but depending on the quality and condition of the fiberglass the result will vary. Unlike 41chevy the fiberglass in my sleeper was very poor quality and had a lot of cracks from age. The soda will open them up and take off very thin gel coat which most truck fiberglass has. The option of using chemicals is really bad as it will get into the porous layer and never come out. You will never have a good paint job with the possible blistering later on. Only way to prep is mechanical sanding or soda blast, sand blasting is to abrasive for fiberglass.

[Maddog13407]

yup,never use paint stripper on fiberglass. you might as well scrap it after as you never get the chemical back and and a year or so later the paint will bubble

[BillyT]

Corn cob blasting is very gentle too, I used to do some welding for a sandblaster who painted trucks. He used cob blasting on fragile stuff, like antique cars.

[carlotpilot]

there is an assortment of blast media on the market that can be used for fragile apps . sponge - olivine which is crushed olive pits - walnut hulls -crushed glass- as said corn cobs several others as well as soda which is the most expensive of all -24 to 35 dollars for a 50 pound bag. crushed glass used with a water induction nozzle at max 80 psi air pressure can be used on fiberglass if you know what you`re doing

Edited August 21, 2016 by carlotpilot