Does anyone know roughly how much to get a kombi sandblasted? Does anyone prefer any alternatives such as soda blasting or chemical dipping? And does anyone know or recommend somewhere in Qld Brisbane/Gold Coast area? Any advice would be very helpful.

not an expert here ,but what i`ve read soda blasting is a better alternative to sand blasting ,something to do with warpage of panels ,and on a kombi you wouldn't want that..

Soda blasting doesn't remove rust but is much kinder to your panels. Sand blast with the right grade grit can work a treat and chemical dip removes everything and is clean. Sand blast grit gets everywhere. I'd ike to try chemical dip next time..saves a lot of trouble.

Is soda blasting just for paint then?

Soda or plastic bead blast removes paint, but not rust. It is kind on panels

Garnet (sand) blast removes rust, but will warp flat panels and ruin them

Chemical dipping is the worst, and I have seen more panels thrown away after dipping than sand blasting. At work, any panels an owner brings in that have been dipped have no guarantee against rust in seams. The acid stays in behind seams and rusts more than ever.

The blaster we use, will use sand on all of the body of a vehicle, except for the flats of panels. That is done with plastic media. It is about $1500 for a sedan and all panels, so a bus would get up around $2000 there. No warpage of panels though. They do everything from Aston Martin DB2, Ferrari 195, Porsche 356 etc.

We have had quite a few cars done by Preptech ( http://www.preptech.com.au ) - a very nice fellow that only does cars and has done so for many years. He hasn't warped one panel yet (several splitties, bays and a karmann ghia that we've had done). He doesn't blast the inside of the outer skins, only the framework etc.

He picks up/drops off - gold coast area (not sure about brissy).

Cheers
Al