DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

[Bob B.]

I saw a ad for a 89 Porsche black targa on Bring a trailer today the underside had been DRY ICE cleaned, never heard of that ,
has anybody tried it on a Corvette ? What were the results and cost ? The underside looked like new,
THANKS, Bob #967

[Sal C.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

Yes, I did Dry Ice blasting for a couple of years. Simply stated, its similar to sandblasting only using dry ice pellets as the media in special equipment. It can be very effective in certain instances used with caution. I can see it being extremely useful in underside cleaning of a typical used car. I think it would be too aggressive in a "survivor" type of application. It could easily remove crayon and paint markings, and probably chassis coating and blackout if you're not careful.

[Michael S.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

@sal, i have just started a ground up on a 64 coupe. i want to get the body media blasted. i heard of the dust less blasting done with water, actually had a coupe cars done, but i am worried about a fiberglass body. have you ever done a vette body? which method would you suggest? i really don't want to spend days with a DA sander on it.

[Richard G.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

The dustless system is likely "Soda Blasting" with water jets at the blast nozzle.
I have such a setup although it's a smaller one. Not the ones sold at Harbor Freight. Although I did experiment with their smallest setup first.
Soda blasting will not affect glass or chrome.
The results are always dependent on the operators skill level as media size, pressures and distant from the substrate as these are all variables.
If you contacted the Soda Blasters in your area maybe they will give you references from other fiberglass car owners.
Even better would be someone that has painted a Corvette that has been blasted by soda.
Mine is slow work and requires over 30 cfm of air. Smaller nozzles (1/8") can be used but you would be at it for days if you used them on a body.
The big guys use 125 CFM compressors and typically require air dryers when used in conjunction with soda.
Bottom line;
I have never used mine on a Corvette's fiberglass. I wouldn't be afraid of trying it though. I have an original rear valance that I have been meaning to try it on, but haven't yet. If I had another Corvette body, that required stripping, I would use the razor blade method, if it worked. Some paints just don't come off with a blade. If the blade method didn't work I would try soda blasting. I believe it would be a great option on the underside of the car.
The dry ice blaster are more difficult to find and I know less about them.
Best of luck.
Rick

[Frederick W.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

Hi I have never used dry ice or soda for a media. I have used plastic bead in a blaster, to strip a 1961 down to bear fiberglass. It worked very fast and worked very well. It left the fiberglass smooth. The only problem was that the media gets into everywhere in the body that has a opening. Even now 2 years later, close the trunk lid, and you might find a little amount in the trunk. It is slowly stopping Fred

[Dick W.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

I have used plastic media to strip a car. The operator was very skilled, he took paint off layer by layer, leaving the red oxide on the glass. I watched a mobile soda blaster do a mid year and the results were the same.

It is all about the skill of the operator, not the media

[Eric T.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

https://youtu.be/l_9nITRz--0

[Garry B.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

I had a house once that needed some mold removed from the attic walls due to poor ventilation. My contractor used dry ice to blast it off because it didn't damage the interior roof decking and it dissipates into the air so there was no mess, surface was dry and left a like new surface. I would think it would work very well on undercarriages.

[Jake M.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

I had my '59 body soda blasted 2 weeks ago. Turned out great. The key is to use someone who is very skilled with using soda on fiberglass. The guys I took it to not only do blasting but also manufacture the soda blasting units (https://www.nutechsodablasting.com/) and are fairly well known for blasting Corvettes (the attached shop had several vettes ranging from a '57 to a late 70's).

A skilled person can take a single layer of paint/primer off at a time if needed. The guys that did mine started with uncovering the areas there are known to have the factory paint stick markings...they were able preserve the BLACK marking that's in the trunk and the HT (hardtop) marking behind the passenger seat. They even called me to ask if I wanted them to remove as much of the bondo as possible that was to fix various imperfections and the hundreds of holes in the poor replacement front-end fiberglass. They educated me along the was letting me know that they can do so much before they risk damaging the fiberglass. Overall thumbs up and great experience.

BTW - There is a dry ice blasting company down the road from me as well. Looked interesting but they didn't have experience with fiberglass..their primary business is around industrial.

[Michael B.]

[Gary J.]

Re: DRY ICE cleaning anybody tried it ??

I had my '59 body soda blasted 2 weeks ago. Turned out great. The key is to use someone who is very skilled with using soda on fiberglass. The guys I took it to not only do blasting but also manufacture the soda blasting units (https://www.nutechsodablasting.com/) and are fairly well known for blasting Corvettes (the attached shop had several vettes ranging from a '57 to a late 70's).

A skilled person can take a single layer of paint/primer off at a time if needed. The guys that did mine started with uncovering the areas there are known to have the factory paint stick markings...they were able preserve the BLACK marking that's in the trunk and the HT (hardtop) marking behind the passenger seat. They even called me to ask if I wanted them to remove as much of the bondo as possible that was to fix various imperfections and the hundreds of holes in the poor replacement front-end fiberglass. They educated me along the was letting me know that they can do so much before they risk damaging the fiberglass. Overall thumbs up and great experience.

BTW - There is a dry ice blasting company down the road from me as well. Looked interesting but they didn't have experience with fiberglass..their primary business is around industrial.

I had a friend that used the same company to soda blast his Corvette. They did a great job. We took the car to them already stripped of all the hardware and on a rotisserie. The owner said that being on a rotisserie would make his job easier and he could get into every crook and cranny top and bottom. The good thing is the company is about an hour and half ride, not bad.