Dipping VS. Blasting

[88 Turbo Coupe]

Has anyone had a good experience with dipping metal parts vs. media blasting? I thing blasting would remove metal which would weaken the metal.

[x.system]

That depends on the material you use to blast with. Walnut shell and polly beads will remove paint only. Aluminum oxide is a little rougher material but its still aluminum so it shouldn't damage metal at all. I blast with fine sand all the time and the parts always turn out really good. I use a heavyer sand if theres alot of rust but these are usually really thick metal parts so if it takes off a little metal I'm not worried about it. I don't know of any place around me to try metal dipping so I'm stuck with blasting.

[88 Turbo Coupe]

I'm considering blasting a old chrome moly frame. I just don't want to mess it up. Once the metals gone, it's gone. And don't want to weaken the frame at all. I have a 80gal 2stage comp. rated at 28cfm and a 100lb vessel sandblaster. I know first hand what damage i can inflict when using a 0 grit sand. I now only use a triple 0 for all blasting unless its real heavy rust. Maybe i'll try some other media??

[x.system]

If your worried about the fine sand maybe try silicon carbide, aluminum oxide or glass bead. The cheapes of these is the glass bead, about $35 for 50lb bag and the most expensive being silicon carbide at $80 for a 50lb bag. Aluminum oxide is about $40 for a 50lb bag depending on where you buy it.

[84250r]

Heres some pics of my parts that have been sandblasted with fine sand. The guy that sandblasted them does an excellent job,i might say. ;)

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/2/web/518000-518999/518973_3_full.jpg

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/2/web/518000-518999/518973_4_full.jpg

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/2/web/518000-518999/518973_5_full.jpg