This is a state-of-the-art process that is non-damaging and environmentally friendly. The Soda blast process will clean and strip the most vulnerable surfaces with unequaled results. And because baking soda is all natural, 100% biodegradeable and water soluble blasting medium, the clean-up is both easy and gentle to the environment.

Paint/Primer will not stick to soda. The car must be washed thoroughly before preparing the surface for paint. Hot water, dish soap and water are both acceptable methods of washing the car. A garden hose and sponge wash is better than a pressure washer. This should be done as close to the time of paint as possible to ensure a great finish. A Self Etching Primer is the next step after washing.

If you are recoating some sort of neutralizing and cleaning of the surface needs to be done. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has a higher than neutral pH and contains some degree of salt (chlorides). You must have a clean, oil free and pH neutral surface to ensure that you won't have a coating faliure after any type of media blastin. Coating failures after soda blasting can usually be traced back to no pre-paint preparation or incorrect preparation. Baking soda is a wonderful media that allows you to do things that no other media will accomplish, but you need to educate yourself about the media and follow a few simple steps after blasting.

Consulting with coatings manufacturers before applicaiton can reveal a wealth of valuable information and help ensure a positive outcome of your project.

A quick message regarding vegetation:

Baking soda can burn vegetation due to the pH of the product. Flowering plants that are more delicate seem to be mroe quickly affected. Leafy green plants and common lawn grass seem less likely affected. Having said this, all vegetation can be affected by baking soda residue to different degrees depending on how much baking soda contacts the surface or ground. Use of breathable tarps to cover plantings around houses and decks works well. Follow removal of the tarps with a tap water wash down of the plantings. In areas where tarping is not practical, start with pre-soaking the plantings and ground before blasting with tap water, and immediately after blasting. We have even used a lawn sprinkler to keep baking soda residue off plantings and to keep the ground wet during blasting operations. Baking soda is water soluble.

There is no guarantee that you won't burn vegitation with the above mentioned techniques - these are just some ideas that have worked for us. We always caution our customers about the possibility of harm to the vegitation.