Soda Blasting in Santa Cruz/Monterey/San Jose area

[Shishaldin]

Hi Guys-
Putting out some feelers here, gauging interest...
Thanks to chrisf here on FABO and his soda blasting business in Salmon Arm, BC (see http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=80762), I now have a completely new career goal away from sitting on my butt in front of a keyboard 50-60 hrs /week (thanks chrisf!:cheers.
Something much more in line with my project Valiant, and a whole lot more fun: SODA/MEDIA BLASTING! I'm going to start kinda small with a nearly brand new RIDGID 5.5hp 135psi compressor that I got a great deal on, and one of Eastwood's Master Blaster Dual Blaster units: http://www.eastwood.com/soda-blasting/soda-blasters/dual-tank-blaster.html, and then work my way up to a full-scale tow behind set up.
I'm going to start with my own '65 Signet convertible and do it in my garage, getting her down to clean pretty sheetmetal (or rotten cruddy bondo and rust :angry7. Now, since the weather's getting MUCH nicer now here in the Central Coast/South SF Bay area, I'm sure some of you are rolling your projects out of the garage and going "Keeeeeriiiist, just LOOK at all that nasty peeling paint, bondo, and rust on my ride! ARRRRGH! WHAT do I do and WHO can I turn to?"
(You might see where this is leading :-D)
How does $50/hr + soda/media (around $80). sound to my fellow FABO'ers? I see rates like $100-$200/hr out there, but I'm just starting out, and I want to give my fellow FABO crew a square deal. I'll take on any project large or small, as long as I can do it in my garage here in Santa Cruz, CA (for now). I'm totally open to trades/barter for help/parts I need, too.
Help a fellow A-body lover do what he LOVES, not just what he HAS to do. Let me know, thanks for lookin'!
Daniel

 

[chrisf]

glad to hear you made the move Daniel!! you wont regret it. you guys thinking of gettting soda blasting done its a great way to start a project. it creates zero heat and wont damage any seals, glass or fiberglass and leaves a factory finish. no rough spots and it shows all the factory tooling. the metal doesnt have a new profile so you can leave it uncovered for a long time before it starts to flash over (i have a blasted fender here going on 6 months with no rust)

Daniel if you need any advice please let me know i will be happy to help.

 

[CudaChick1968]

Daniel, I want to wish you the absolute best of luck in your new endeavor!!! Follow that dream and make it a reality. :-D

 

[Shishaldin]

Thanks! I totally appreciate the moral support and well wishes! I love FABO 'cause of the *rockin'* folks on here :cheers:.
Funny story about the soda blasting: I was talking to some good friends of mine over Chinese food about "doing something completely different" than what I've been doing for about the last dozen years or so (software quality assurance/backend server support for content). I got into the specifics of what I'd learned from chrisf and my own reading on the 'Net, and they both thought it was a cool idea. (actually, everybody I've talked to thought it was a cool idea!) We finished our Chinese dinner, and then it was time for our fortune cookies.
Mine said "You will take a chance, and win" :cheers: Kinda sounds a little like destiny, don't it? haha

The other cool thing is that I actually got my 19 year old son, Darren, interested in doing it with me. He's NOT a car guy AT ALL. Believe me, I've tried. I do better with my buddy's 3 year old when it comes to talking about cars and how cool they are. Hearing that my boy would want to work with his old man is cool, especially since he's still struggling to find a direction, career-wise. But, he's taking a full load of community college classes here and keeping up his grades and working at the local CVS for now. Sharp kid. I'm a lucky dad that we'll get this venture started together.

So, the plan is to call it D & D (Darren and Dad) Soda Blasting - Santa Cruz. I'll be posting some '66 Valiant body parts to help finance the blaster unit soon...

chrisf- I'll be dropping you a PM shortly with some questions...

Leanna- Muah! Thanks!

 

[chrisf]

you should put this in the restoration section

on another note here are some a body pics of the 69 i did for a friend.
the whole thing didnt need to be blasted so we just did what was needed.. its going to be a pro touring style resto with a 451 in it.

i have a couple 5 second video's of blasting this thing. i will upload them to youtube when i get a chance

 

[Super T]

I need someone in Chicagoland to do this for cheap if you know anybody ;-)

 

[EL5DEMON340]

try calling Route 66 i think in planefeild, they restore chevys mostly but i've been thinking of visiting their shop with the demon. they were in MCR a few months back. Good luck on the new bussiness, be sure to get insurance !!!

 

[SB69GTS]

Good luck and best wishes to your success, let me know if you firgured out how to neutrilize the soda after blasting. i heard some bad stories of people painting cars after soda blasting and not taking extra precaustions in cleaning this off before painting. Again, all the sucess to you and your son, I have an 18 year in the same boat .... he said he is leaving in september to do criminalogy and looking at policing ..... dammm, first ticket he writes will probably be me speeding in my dart when i have it done ....lol

 

[PartNDarts]

Shishaldin, I am in Nebraska and have a MMLJ soda blast system and use a Multiquip 180 cfm trailer type compressor with a diesel Isuzu engine. We are in a high humidity area and I use baking soda with ground corn cob called 'Grit-o-cob'. I mix the two because corn cob absorbs the humidity keeping the soda from clumping up in the hopper and hose. It also helps keep the soda dust down. I also have an air dryer mounted on my compressor with two water traps.
I bought my setup used about 10 years ago, from a body shop going out of business sale. I had the compressor already and bought the hopper, hose, and some supplies.
At first I was doing it about everyday. Now I have the stuff and use it a couple times a year. Have considered selling it all because we now have 3 kids that are very active and they take up a bunch of my time.
As far as pricing, I first charged by the car because I was doing completes. I charged between $750 and $850 depending on size. A couple years ago when diesel prices went up I stated charging $75 an hour. An average car took between 10-12 hours so it all comes out. Another reason that I started charging by the hour is that I lost my butt on the first late 60s Chevy I did. It was an original paint car and the primer does not just fall off of those things. It took me about 23 hours to strip that beast completely. You will find that a repaint will practically fall off.
Again, I use a soda/cob mix and the other options may be more agressive but I don't want to stock multiple materials just for a pasttime hobby. My closest cob and soda supplier is in Denver, an 8 hour round trip. I now buy thier cob but pick up my soda locally from the feed center. We are in cattle country and ranchers mix the baking soda in water for thier cows to make them burp and keep from bloating (picture that in your mind). Anyway, being high humidity and the infrequency that I blast, I have found that the blasting soda will clump up and get hard on me in storage so I buy the feed grade soda which is less course but still works. I only buy what I need and it costs about half of what blasting grade costs.
Anyway, I think you are right on target with your pricing. If and when you decide to expand and if you want to make a trip, come on out and haul my setup home. It all works great but I just don't have the time anymore.

 

[chrisf]

i am $140/hr for soda. $110 for glass

i find that the feed grade soda clumps badly. natrium has TSP in it which doesnt cause it to clump at all, i could blast in a snow storm. (did it) and in the rain (did it) and no clumping. thats HIGH humidity

corn is very expensive here so i dont use it, I have 3 bags of feed grade here and my next blasting job i am going to go 50/50 feed/natrium feed is $12 a bag and i am paying $35 for natrium. would be good if it still cut ok.



sorry Daniel didnt mean to hijack your post.

 

[Shishaldin]

i am $140/hr for soda. $110 for glass

i find that the feed grade soda clumps badly. natrium has TSP in it which doesnt cause it to clump at all, i could blast in a snow storm. (did it) and in the rain (did it) and no clumping. thats HIGH humidity

corn is very expensive here so i dont use it, I have 3 bags of feed grade here and my next blasting job i am going to go 50/50 feed/natrium feed is $12 a bag and i am paying $35 for natrium. would be good if it still cut ok.

sorry Daniel didnt mean to hijack your post.

No worries, Chris! You just dropped some great info. I'll definitely look at Natrium. With it's humidity resistance, it would be a good choice for out here on the coast.

PartNDarts- Nebraska's a LOOONG way out there for me (and I still need a truck/van), but heck, it's a lot of country I still haven't seen yet. How much would you want for your complete set up? Might be worth the drive and to get to meet another cool FABO member :-D.

I just bought a '96 Toyota Camry for $300 that's in REALLY good shape aside from some hood/fender/grille damage and needing a tune-up. I might just fix 'er up and sell it to finance a work truck OR just give it to my god daughter who needs (and deserves!) a car. Ya really want to help out the younger ones if ya can, ya know?

Thanks for all the input!

 

[Shishaldin]

Hi All-
Been mostly missing from around FABO as I took a few months and got the Camry fixed up for my goddaughter, who really needed a car in a bad way.

Hope your summers are all going well! My summer just got ratcheted up a notch since I bought a 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 work van (ex-PacBell) today. (5.9l, o/d automatic - 116k on the odo) Just shy of $3500, tax and license included. I fortunately got an unexpected bonus in my check (we did better than projected :cheers, that allowed me to jump on this one. Trick stuff: 6500w gasoline generator (110v/240v outputs) and 1.5 hp double-piston air compressor. Outlets for each are on the front and back ends of the van, slick! Monster heavy duty drawers, too! You can do some WORK in this van.
I'll be picking it up in a couple of weeks after they make a couple of repairs, and I make my second (and final) payment. Anybody got a line on decently priced 16" LT tires for this (245/75r16)?
Can't wait to start using it!

 

[dustya_383]

Hi All-
Been mostly missing from around FABO as I took a few months and got the Camry fixed up for my goddaughter, who really needed a car in a bad way.

Hope your summers are all going well! My summer just got ratcheted up a notch since I bought a 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 work van (ex-PacBell) today. (5.9l, o/d automatic - 116k on the odo) Just shy of $3500, tax and license included. I fortunately got an unexpected bonus in my check (we did better than projected :cheers, that allowed me to jump on this one. Trick stuff: 6500w gasoline generator (110v/240v outputs) and 1.5 hp double-piston air compressor. Outlets for each are on the front and back ends of the van, slick! Monster heavy duty drawers, too! You can do some WORK in this van.
I'll be picking it up in a couple of weeks after they make a couple of repairs, and I make my second (and final) payment. Anybody got a line on decently priced 16" LT tires for this (245/75r16)?
Can't wait to start using it!

come on down to skips tire and auto for some tires in scotts valley or san jose on blossom hill and windfield (thats the one i work at) im not a salesman but well give u the best price no matter where u go check us out