Thank you for all of the nice compliments. I have a Facebook page and have been documenting it all along the restoration process. If you would like to see more, there is a link here at the bottom that will get you to my page to see it, if you would like.
Sandblasting. It is a general or generic term for media blasting. There is soda, sand, plastic pellets, and many more things that can be used as the media. It depends on what you are trying to achieve and on what material. I would not rule it out in certain situations.
I have a machine that will be media blasted here (hopefully) soon. It had a lot of really bad chips in it and all of the paint on the front edge was completely gone and someone spray painted half of the bed and random parts to cover up the chips and paint loss.
It is a good idea to have your paint booth pretty much ready to go with a primer before starting the blasting process. As soon as you are done with the blasting, into the paint booth for primer. Or at least that is how I am going to do it.
~G~