[MP&C]

When you say "sand", I wouldn't recommend using sand as most of it also contains caustic salt particles. Not something you want in your sheet metal. We use the Barton 80HPA (garnet) for our media blasting.. As you said, light pressure and angled approach should keep things damage free. If you do blast the inner structure, block off any adjacent areas of the hood skin or open holes, and sand these areas by hand or DA. If you read the sticky thread "Repairing Sandblast Damage", most damage to hoods and trunk lids comes from someone attempting to clean off the inner structure and inadvertently hitting the adjacent flat sheet metal, which is more prone to damage than the multi-folds of the inner structure.