I can take a stab at answering those questions! Price and 'fair' is all relative. However, do you want to do follow-on work after your blaster does his job? Meaning, what I see in this pic is a guy Soda blasting the floors. Yes, its clean, but, its too smooth for paint adhesion, and, rust activity is still active. When you cook a steak, you want the flavor inside, not just brushed on the outside right? So, what do you do? You tenderize the meat, punch it a bit...then, flavor it. Media blasting 'should' be the same way, punch that metal, find the weak areas, use soft media, use lots of cfm, low air pressure -- this way you mitigate all chances for warping/damaging panels. Then, put the epoxy primer on, on top of the slightly profiled surface.
Cost v Value. Weight them out. A welder/fabricator down the street from me asked me like 2 months ago how much to Media blast his Chevy cab, I told him about 1000 dollars, he never called me back. He sent it to the sand blaster for a 400 dollar job, good deal right? He got it cheaper! But, his cab is completely junk, warped everywhere. He has not come to me to inquire, but, his next door neighbor did when I brought my motorcycle in for a brake bleed down. He asked me if I did his cab, I said nope, he asked me to, but never heard back from him. He's paying far more now b/c he saved 600 dollars in media blasting fees!
PPG will not stand behind their paints if applied to fiberglass, either composite of hand layed glass if the surface was soda blasted. I don't use Soda, so, I can't say good or bad about it, I know it's good for graffiti and mold damages.
I would wonder why use sand for the bottom and then why treat the topside better with other softer medias? Are you trying to save a few hundred dollars? Is it worth it? I use the same media for the entire car.
Yes, remove all the removables; doors, deck lid, glass, fenders, etc.
I get for a B Body complete just over $2100.00 for the entire car with doors, etc. I would be cautious about a blaster that is eager to put your car into primer as part of the price! I've seen them do this to hide work they DON'T do. Primer can hid a LOT! This is why I don't prime unless they ask for it, then, I send it out to get primed, with lots of before, during and after pics to prove to them I did my job. To put the entire car in epoxy after is about 600-700 dollars more on top of the media blast price. I can tell you, this is hard labor and intense work to yield the results you need, and I take too long, most shops would close up because they can't afford to keep a car 10+ days. But, I can b/c I have a US Army retirement check coming in, so, the stuff that goes out is pristine and could not be better anywhere for the same price.
Good luck!
