I tried a cheap homemade soda blaster that I saw on you tube, and it didn't work out to well. The funny thing is it didn't remove the paint but it did remove the primer from where the paint has already chipped off. I'm just going to rent one or buy one. Is there a special type of soda I need to buy? Also Should I take it down to bare metal or leave the orginal primer on. I heard its a biotch to get paint to stick.

There's more to the paint on your drives than meets the eye. In fact the shiny black top coat - although it's what catches your eye - is probably the least important and easiest part to apply. The real key to durability (corrosion, UV ray & abrasion resistance) is the pre-paint and primer steps. If you look at what most manufacturers do, there's a multiple step clean and phosphate process that just prepares the metal for paint and sets it up for better adhesion. Then, the primer is generally electrostatically applied (think "river of paint") to get and even thickness of primer everywhere. Then the color and / or clear protective coats go on.

So getting back to your original question, I always suggest that folks remove as little of the above mentioned critical processes when re-painting a drive. If you remove everything, you may end up with a beautiful looking drive - until you actually use it.