Inspired by our soda-powered Texans..

[razz2234]

All this soda blasting talk has got me inspired to do it to my tank...she needs a good paint job. This may sound stupid...but...do you have to remove ALL traces of gas in the tank before you try and blast it?

[montmil]

The little DIY home-brewed soda blaster will not generate enough force to remove paint from most anything. Good for cleaning off road grunge and a little discoloration.

As to removing all the paint from your beemer tank... You may not be pleased with what you end up with. Most of our tanks endured a lengthy fill n' sand process at the factory before paint was applied. You would be forced to replicate the effort.

When I repainted my '83 R65, I found the best finish after sanding the fuel tank with wet-or-dry paper grades. All it takes is a few days of labor and wearing off your fingerprints! YMMV...

Monte

[Ed Miller]

I think it would take a heck of a soda blaster to remove paint.  I tried to clean off my Triumph side cover/tool box with my bead blaster (glass beads, I guess) and could barely make the paint dull.  Funny how skidding down the road at 65 mph was easily able to remove paint, just not very uniformly, but glass beading wouldn't.  

...no I didn't wreck, it just fell off.

Three times.  

I'm going to be re-thinking the attachment mechanism before I put it back on.

[montmil]

I subscribe to a bunch of hot rod mags. Yes, soda blasters will remove paint from automobiles and other items; it just requires a very powerful blast system. Plus, the "soda" used is different than our DIY home cooking variety. True blast soda is a much coarser size and has sharper edges/corners. Both do make one heck of a mess

Monte

[nhmaf]

I haven't bought it yet, but I DID finally find where someone bought and tried out the Harbor Freight Soda blaster and wrote a review.  Here's alink, if anyone is interested:

http://www.fordmuscle.com/forums/body-paint-articles/485680-soda-blasting-budget.html

My compressor is only about 2 HP, 17 Gal tank, so unless I got one of those pressurized media blasters, I don't think my compressor would keep up with the 90PSI CFM requirement for this siphone unit.. least ways not for continuous blasting..