Sandblasting?

[504BalerGuy]

I am working on restoring a 1/16 IH 856 and a IH disc that is of the same time frame. I have a small Craftsman siphon sandblaster and would like to use this to remove the paint. I am worried that sand will be to aggresive for die cast. What do you guys use to clean older toys for restoring?
Thank You,
James
 

[gtractorfan]

I've never sandblasted die cast, but couldn't you try it with the gun held farther than usual from your project... like on the bottom first?
 

[Mitchissippi]

Let"r Rip! As long as your blast media isn"t too aggressive, you"ll be fine. I use glass beads that are like 80 grit paper. It leaves a very slight roughness to the diecast, but your first coat of primer will hide it completely.

I blast them, shot them with a self-etching primer, lightly (600 grit) sand the flat (sheet metal) areas, shoot a good coat of filler primer, body putty any imperfections you want to hide, shoot those spots with another coat of filler primer, repeat with putty if neccesary, wet sand the easy areas with 600, and shoot paint.

I have wet sanded the paint and re-shot to get a really pretty finish.

Mitch
 

[rustyplow]

Research "Soda blaster". Never done it yet but thats what the local sandblaster guy told me.