You might try aluminum oxide and always wear a respirator. You can get away with using a suction blaster, but a pressurized unit works best. How big of a compressor are you using? The bigger the nozzle on the blast gun, the larget the pattern, but the more cfm is needed. I blasted my entire 70 cuda body with plastic media. It had 6 layers of paint!! It took forever with an 80 gal 8hp 2 stage compressor and a 100lb pressurized blaster. It was like painting a house with a 2" brush. I did it, but it took a long time. You can get several recycles with the aluminum oxide. I think it's safer than sand..................................170bcuda