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this will be a long thread................

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It has been the previous 10+ times it was discussed... have a look at one of them:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Test&Number=6207593

From that thread, my opinion on the various methods:

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Media blasting has lots of options, and even more opinions... Here are mine, based on two months research that I did three years ago. Altogether I visited six blasters, talked to about another half-dozen or so on the phone, and spent maybe 40 hours total on the Internet... mostly finding & reading technical articles that compared the advantages & dis-advantages of each type.

My conclusions of the most common types used on car bodies:

1) Sand - Highly effective and cheapest by far, but most dangerous to the car, and now the EPA is cracking down on it as a health hazard also... most really cheap quotes ($500-$600) are based on using this method. Using it extensively has a high risk of warping exterior sheetmetal, especially large relatively unsupported panels like roof skins, hood skins, etc.
2) Coal Slag - "Black Beauty" or similar abrasive, like sand, great on removing rust, but with the surface changes it can cause to the sheetmetal primer & paint adhesion can be reduced, causing problems done the road. Also, like sand, it will remove any and all factory coatings.
3) Soda - A very popular option with car restorers at this time. Not as effective on surface rust, but very effective on most other materials (paint, filler, etc). Some concerns about fully flushing out the residue after blasting, with 3-5 high pressure flushes being recommended. Still, some concerns that trapped residue where panel seams are could cause paint problems later... maybe the Moparts member that does soda blasting knows more how to insure there is not a problem. This is normally the moderate priced option, maybe $900-$1200 per body.
4) Plastic - The least effective on surface rust, but very safe to the sheetmetal. Fairly slow stripping, so the most expensive. I paid $2000 three years ago, it would probably cost $2200-$2500 now in most areas of the country. Where the surface rust was left intact, spot touch-ups with very light sand blasting was used. On frames and stiffened panels like floorboards, the sand blasting is relatively safe.

IMO, if a car body does not have extensive surface rust, plastic media is the way to go. My second choice would be soda blasting, but it would have to be followed by extensive flushing & inspection to ensure elimination of any residue.

Just my on the subject... use or ignore as you wish.

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My car has very little rust, and no undercoating, so I don't think I NEED a super abrasive media, but I certainly don't want to have problems with my paint job from left over Soda residual that I didn't wash off well enough.

How does glass bead compare to plastic bead? There's a shop in town that uses glass bead on cars, and they say they have good results. I have no experience with this shop though, so I'm trying to do my homework.

-dan

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There's glass beads which I believe is for fine work, Like I use it to blast iron parts, connecting rods, crankshafts, main caps in my blast cabinet. Never use glass beads on aluiminum.

Glass beads would be expensive for outside car blasting, I believe.

Then there's crushed glass which I would hope would be cheaper than glass beads, and used for more aggressive removal, I believe.

Then there are at least 5 kinds of plastic for blasting. Urea type plastic is the most economical for our cars, from my research. It's designed to be reused, it splinters upon impact making it still usable. Where as sand will get rounder and less effective the second time around.

Low pressures and hi volume is where it's at.

I use a heated pressure washer to remove all grease, undercoating, road tar from my work before blasting. Which allows me to do a light/fast blasting to get to bare metal. Whole other story, but the way to go.

If your rocker panels are packed full of sand someone did a heck of a lot of blasting and I'd be worried about metal fatigue.

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paint falling off after soda is lazy prep work. no excuses nothing magic, just lazy prep, same way fisheyes and dirt get there.
same way a bad mechanic blames his tools a bad bodyman/painter blames soda.

customer didnt want to pull the vent window parts so i blasted around them, the nice part about soda! i have no problem blasting any peice of sheetmetal with soda

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Soda works great. The car needs to stripped to the bare shell. Any dufuss who gets a car blasted not being stripped is just a stupid lazy dummy. Soda blasting is no different than jumping in a lake with your clothes on/water gets every where.