blasting aluminium panels?

As far as i know blasting the paint off of aluminium is a bad idea as the panel gets hot and warps.

Is this right?

Cheers Landy-lee

I met a fellow who had decided to take all of the paint of his Defender 90 and had blasted the paint off. He hadn't realised what a mess it made to the alloy, which became pitted and looked awful.

You can use different types of material to use in the process and, I understand that walnut shells are a fairly mild alternative. I'm sure that someone will give you an idea of what else you might use.

I'm just finning up curing the paint on my bonnet hinges and have followed your example in the kitchen. The oven on gas mark 1 did a great job . Throughout the week I have been using the polytunnel which was even better. But it's persistenting it down now and the temp has fallen to cold! So thanks for the advice . I think w e could change your mom de plume to Gordon Ramsey from Derby

landy-lee said:

As far as i know blasting the paint off of aluminium is a bad idea as the panel gets hot and warps.

Is this right?

Cheers Landy-lee

Click to expand...

Yes and no....... Depends on the blasting material. Make google your friend. Or stop by a good body shop and ask them as they would be the pros

Granulated sugar on the steel bits and sodium bicarbonate on the ally panels.
It'll take some time, but it's worth it!

As OSD says baking soda crystals on the ally panels. Works well, is cheap, and environmentally friendly. Also any soda left behind simply dissolves and washes away with plain water.

Just make sure you get baking soda and not caustic soda as it dissolves aluminium as well as pretty much anything else organic which includes you.

I have a soda blaster if you want to buy it ! cost me just over £100 yours for £50. used it on my transfer and gearbox. its like new but obviously covered in baking soda dust.