[Diskovod]

Hey there!
I'm up to sandblast my car that doesn't tend to be a hot rod much - some rare japanese can - 1984 Toyota Celica GT-R Coupe (one of 1500 coupes). Video. I'm on my way to restore it. So as a hotrodder in my heart I think that you all are very common with sandblasting, corrosion protection, welding and then painting tandem of processes.
The car needs to be sandblasted for lots of reasons, so it's a point we won't discuss. But the fun starts at sandblasting - hope the metal won't warp or anything, I'll try to test the sandblasting equipment they have on small body parts if they will warp or heat a lot. As I heard the car is better to get coated during next 6 hours after sandblasting as micro-rust is a very bad thing, tho the guys at Discovery (yep, the show them here also) do metal works for hell a load of time. That's what I heard, probably it depends on the climate. (I live in St. Petersburg, Russia, it's a big city and also is a sea port, high humidity follows of course) Okay, never mind.
I'd need to do a lot of welding, plus I definitely need a good corrosion protection (imagine a good frosty Canadian winter... the protection!). So can you advice me some good protecting coats and epoxy that I should use after sandblasting? so they can get sanded after all welding is done and get a heavy primary epoxy. (Some coats need to be painted is a limited time, as I heard)
Well, most of 3M products are available here, so are most of other brands (but the lack of House Of Kolor). Please, tell me what you've got on your mind.
Thank you!

[64Bird]

Is soda blasting available in your parts? If it is you wouldn't have to worry about the drawbacks of sand.

[Diskovod]

The guy at sandblasting company said they had tried using soda to blast out some paint, but it hadn't really blasted anything, as he said. Maybe they used wrong kind of soda or wrong pressure to blast it... Do you have any experience of soda blasting?

[Jon]

See this comprehensive wiki article: Soda blasting.

Also, see: Sandblasting and Media blasting.

[birdguy]

Is Picklex-20 available over there? From my experience it gives excellent medium-term protection from rust under most conditions. It is a little on the pricey side (about $100 US per gallon) but worth it if it's going to be awhile before you can get epoxy sprayed. I have a hood that I Picklex-ed about two years ago and it still shows no sign of rust. Good-luck!

[64Bird]

I just got started, but I can tell you its great. I bought a home soda blaster from Eastwood (www.eastwood.com ). They have a pretty good video. One of the side benefits of soda is that the residew provides a protective coating on the metal although I wouldn't rely on that in your climate. My 64 Falcon had 5 coats of paint on it and I had no problem going to bare metal. Around here the going price to have an entire car done is $1,500.

[Diskovod]

Thanks all!
I doubt it is available, but okay if maybe I can get it from Finland if it's there.
Thanks for the write-ups on soda-blasting and sand-blasting! Yeah, probably, I should mess with soda on important exterior parts and sand-blast the more meaty parts - interior, underbody and engine compartment. I've read some threads and guess panels after they got soda-blasted are better to get washed out with soap from the soda dust that doesn't seem to be good to stay there under paint.

[stanhope55]

64 Bird.... are you cleaning your soda parts with Holdtight 102 or just soap and water ?