Hi guys, I know that media blasting/paint stripping have all been discussed before but in my searches I could not find the answer to my question. Anyway, I was wondering is media blasting faster than a DA grinder, and is it absolutely guaranteed to not warp the metal. Thanks in advance for the info guys.

Any type of blasting is going to be faster and more thorough than using a DA. There are no guarantees with anything, because it is dependent on the skill of the blast operator. If the operator uses too much pressure, too close, wrong angle, etc, etc, you can warp metal with just about anything.

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Bill Pritchard
69 SS396 Convertible
"Doing my part to help the disadvantaged - My Chevelle was for sale by a blatant liar. Didn't trust him, so I hired a blind man to inspect it before I bought it."

I myself do a lot of media blasting at work we use glass beads it doesn't warp what's nice about this is if I clean out used beads at work I can take them home and they work great in a Snap-on hand held blaster.

A lot of people are promoting soft media such as plastic beads or walnut shells. Both will remove paint without causing excessive heat buildup. But plastic media blasting is expensive due to the cost of the blasting media.
By no means do you ever use sand on sheetmetal. Can't say that enough.

Many years ago I went to media blasting and have never looked back. It takes 1/2 day to strip the entire car and cost between $600-$1000 if the frame is done in addition to the body. It doesn't remove rust or bondo but you don't have to deal with any paint peeling later due to chemical residue. The process can be down carefully enough to show any inspection marks that were underneath or if your primer is in good shape, you can remove just the top layers of paint. For a $ per hour comparison, media is tough to beat.

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"Details Make the Difference"

I use Silica sand in my blaster. It is EXTREMELY fine, almost like powder. It removes rust well, but as mentioned, you have to be careful with large sheetmetal areas. For heavy steel brackets or sheetmetal parts that don't have a large sheet surface area, I just blast away. The surface finish is a nice satin finsih and after thorough cleaning, paint adhears very good.
If I have parts (ferrous metal only, iron, steel) that have a lot of rust, I soak them in Muratic acid (HCL acid, diluted 1/2 with water), 20min to few hours, depending on degree of rust, thoroughly rinse with water, THEN lightly blast.

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Tom Parsons