Soda Blasting Electrical Parts-Fuse Block, etc.

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MobileCustoms

MobileCustoms

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Just wanted to share the results of a quick little experiment I tried last night.

My dash harness is in overall good shape, just very dirty with some corrosion, especially in the fuse block and plug ends, bulkhead too.

I have all new harnesses for the engine-forward but wanted to clean up everything else from the firewall-back to re-use if possible.

For the purpose of this quick test, i just used my small hand-held mini sand blaster and restricted the siphon pickup tube by slipping a plastic cap over it and drilling one very tiny hole in it (less than 1/16 inch).

I just grabbed a box of Baking Soda from the kitchen for the test.
Anyways, it worked really good! Didn't damage the plastic at all either. I just did one half of the backside of the fuse block for before & after comparison.
Thinking I might go buy a small blasting cabinet and set it up for this to contain the mess. Would be great for cleaning up all my door latches and lots of other small stuff as well.
I'm sure this is probably not new to many here but I tried searching for it with no good results so decided to make a thread about it.
If anyone has any tips or input that would be great. Hoping the idea of buying the small blasting cabinet to use with soda is a good one!

-Doug
 

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that turned out real decent, your sandblaster looks like a shiltz gun, not really meant for sand but I'm sure it works okay with baking soda
 
66plyValiant said:
that turned out real decent, your sandblaster looks like a shiltz gun, not really meant for sand but I'm sure it works okay with baking soda
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The gun is made for sand, actually, and I have used it a lot over the years for real quick small stuff and it works great. I have a larger pressure pot blaster also.
I also have a specific Schutz gun for undercoating, etc.

I know they say you need really dry air for soda blasting. I have a good wall mounted water trap but not an actual air drier. I would think that should be fine for doing these quick, small cleanup jobs where the air compressor isn't running for long periods.
Actually, right now here in Minnesota's Winter, the air is pretty damned dry to start with! (just ask my skin)
 
I soda blasted my carburetor in a Harbor Freight blast cabinet. Turned out great.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?p=1969611664#post1969611664

No mods required to the cabinet. I will say that visibility inside the cabinet was non-existent. I've since added a dust collector to the cabinet which is a massive improvements when blasting with aluminum oxide. But I haven't tried it yet with the baking soda and the dust collector.
 
Soda and super glue will repair most plastic parts
with a crack or missing chunk.
Works good to repair stripped holes in wood also.
Its an old luthier trick.
 
Good job. I ended up soaking the fuse block in CRL and EvapoRust. Your method looks easier and faster with better results. I'll have to have another look at mine...I may want to blast it now.
 
Here are some more new photos of some items I blasted with regular Arm & Hammer soda. Got a 13 pound bag for 6 bucks at Sam's club.
The headlight switch really came out nice and it was very crusty!.
 

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Hey Longarm, what kind of mixed do you use for the superglue/baking soda trick? I'd like to try that out on some parts.

Also, I get soda from Harbor Freight, a 50# bag is around $45 but they regularly sell broken bags for $10-$15 bucks. I have 3 bags with probably 45# in them that I paid $10 bucks each in my garage right now.
 
Best way to see it in action is to go to Youtube
and look up baking soda and super glue.
 
red67gts said:
very impressed!
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Thank you.. When you consider what I started with, it really looks impressive!
You couldn't even tell what colors the wires were. Now that I have the firewall cleaned up, it is time to start putting it back together as I overhaul the other dash components.
 

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That regular Arm & Hammer soda also really works well on the dash bezels! Ran a test patch tonight. Does a really nice job without any loss of detail to the raised letters around the heater controls, etc. Leaves the surface smooth as a baby's butt and ready for primer/paint.
 

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Your results look great!

You can get coarse grade blasting soda from amazon.

I have used this type on some electrical connections inside an out. It is much faster than kitchen soda. I have also used it on other parts. It does cut faster so not as much time or pressure is needed on sensitive parts.
I like the soda b/c it is water soluble so you can spray the object with a bit of water to remove any soda residue if you want to. Supoosedly it leaves a bit of an anti-corrosion coating if you leave residue on although I would probably use something else for anti-corrosion long term.
 
Thanks, I am really happy with how well it worked on stripping the dash bezel and keeping all the fine detail very crisp. Maybe the coarser stuff would work great too and faster but I didn't want to risk any damage. Starting to get some of the colors back on the dash pieces now!

Going to order some new wood grain inserts soon. Just got the old ones laying in there for now, to see how it all looks.

View attachment dash2.jpg

View attachment dash3.jpg

View attachment dash1.jpg
 
I use a semi-worn #8 glass bead and cut down the pressure a bit to do fuse panels and the electrical connectors it works great to get a clean corrosive free surface.
I do like the use of the soda on the dash bezels to strip the finish without damage to the pebbled finish! The centers are tough to re-finish and keep the spiral rings.
Nice share - getting professional looking results the avg Joe can get using general sitting around the house stuff.
 
Rocky_JS said:
The centers are tough to re-finish and keep the spiral rings.
Nice share - getting professional looking results the avg Joe can get using general sitting around the house stuff.
Click to expand...

I hear ya... They do show up a little bit at least but not like original, that's for sure.

Thanks for the tips on glass bead!
 

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What kind of paint did you use for the silver on the dash bezels?
 
I use a paper towel and ball it up spray chrome paint directly to the towel. I quickly push and twist with light to moderate pressure the center on the painted towel. I have good luck with keeping the spirals that way. The chrome never lays out real good when spraying it directly on those anyhow - as you found out.


MobileCustoms said:
I hear ya... They do show up a little bit at least but not like original, that's for sure.

Thanks for the tips on glass bead!
Click to expand...
 
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