I get negative feedback regarding dipping the body sheet metal. The folks closest to me that do it are in Mississippi, and I understand they do a great job. Folks around here tell me that is the worst thing to get done because recesses retain chemicals that'll bleech out after painting...but then I hear the process is much improved, and that isn't an issue anymore. What's better, media blasting a body or chemically dipping it and then priming?
I'm with bigeasy. I wanted to get my car dipped but I heard horror stories about the after effects. And if instead I get the car media blasted, how can I be sure that they shot the whole car inside of door panels and all?
My main concern with dipping is the removal of all the factory sealers. they put rust controlling finishes and goos on surfaces you cant see no matter which way you look at it or tear it apart, but the fluid can get in and strip it out....unless you plan on dipping in some sort of epoxy primer after the chem dip i say no because you will leave lots of places unprotected no matter how well you put it back together and refinish with a dip.
The first question I ask is WHY are you doing it? Do you really care about the paint that is down in the recesses and inside the door panels? I see and hear about people who do a lot of expensive things to their cars without ever asking WHY...most have heard about what to do from others but have never really thought about they are personnaly trying to accomplish. If the body is riddled with rust then you probably want to have a look in all the nooks and crannies...and you probably don't care about chemical residue. If you have a solid body and just want to get the old paint off the outside so that you can build up a new finish using modern paints then who cares about the inside? If it ain't broke don't fix it...especially if you are paying someone else. I have had cars media blasted and I have had them sandblasted, both work well when done by an experienced person. Chemical dipping is going to remove everything on the body; paint, filler, and all the seam sealer...do you really want to go over the whole body and re-seal the seams? This is stuff for 100 point concours restorations, not sleds and hot rods.
Friend of mine had a way cool 54' Ford F-100. Candy copper, tunnelrammed 289, all out show rig. He offered to sell me the truck. Jokingly, I said I would give him $3K for it. He said OK. Asked him if he was serious and why so cheap. He had the truck chemically dipped. Now the paint was bubbling at the seams. He figured that some of the acid remained after rinsing. He wanted out of the truck before it fell apart. He traded it for a beat 912 porsche.
Well, that is 3 people against dipping and 0 for it. I think we can see where this is going. CharlieLed you have a good point about asking why is it that I would ruin the factory seam seals. This IS going to be a driver and I don't have to put more money then is needed. I guess the only reason that I even considered it was that since this is my first frame off build as well as the first car I am stripping, I did not want to take the chance of warping the panels. But since you guys have pointed out the flaws in dipping I am starting to think that the Blast option is a better choice. Any pro dippers out there in HAMB-land that are willing to convert us?
well... here's a point of view from someone who does rust repair. most of the time cars rust from the inside out. down in the little nooks and crannys where dirt ac***ulates and moisture is allowed to fester for longer than it would if there was no dirt there. when I do a rust job I can only fix the rust I can find. I can't fix the rust that will not be popping through the surface for a couple of years. this is where dipping is better. so there is something to consider if your car has rust issues the downside to abrasive blasting is incompetent people ruining your parts, and the blast medium hiding in a crevice somewhere until that final coat of clear is going on then blowing out and landing right in the middle of your hood the cure for this would be baking soda blast. it disolves in water. with all that being said I think I would go with gl*** bead blasting rather than a dip.... unless there were big rust issues.
On rust cases the only way to go is with a chem. dip, it will expose any trouble areas. Of co****, the only reason to fix a rusty body is because of the rarity and value of the finished project.
I've had bodies and parts chemically dipped in the past. I'll never do it again to a part that has any kind of seam or fold. No matter how much flushing you do, there will always be some residue somewhere. My experience is it causes new rust to form and grow much faster than usual. Blast, sand, grind, or cut out. Do not chemical dip.
I"m with you on this one. My friend built a Anglia and had the body dipped. The car is about 6 years old and is bubbling at all seams
Me and a buddy filled a 400 gallon container with 1 part mol***es to 9 parts water and have been dunking rusty parts for months now. Takes 3 weeks to a month but works wonders. Only problem is flash rusting after you hose the parts off. Now I've been using a phosphate based metal conditioner scrubbed in as soon as the mol***es is hosed off and flash rusting doesn't get started. One warning, the mol***es eats pot metal we discovered.
I have never had anything diped,,,but have done MORE than my fair share of sandblasting,,,,It's time consuming,hot and dirty work,,,but the payoff is worth it,,,HRP
I am trying to decide what to do with my A coupe right now as well. I don't have an option to dip so it is blasting or wire wheels, sanding, and grinding. I have heard lots of stories about blasting gone bad. Warping is the biggest blasting problems. What about manual methods and then using rust inhibiting paints on inner panels?
The problem with dipping is that a lot of companies that do it are not experienced with dipping cars and don't properly wash them off after the process. make sure that the place you bring it to will have a tank that the body is dunked in to wash the body off, it would also be nice if they use a power washer afterwards and also make sure they coat it with a rust inhibiting solution before it is done. Many pro builders use the dipping method instead of blasting just because it is more effective in removing rust and they don't have problems but I am sure they also have well informed companies doing the dipping process for them.
We had my brothers 38 chevy coupe shell and sheetmetal dipped about 25 yrs.ago at a Redi-strip facility in Tampa that is long gone. When we got it back we followed their recommendations and used spray bottles filled with Ospho and liberally sprayed it down a couple times till the Ospho was dripping evrywhere. To this day there has not been bubble one much less any seam problems. Based on this experience,I not afraid of having anything dipped.
I think the question above about what are you trying to accomplish is what I'm going to ask also. I know a guy who had his trunk ruined by blasting. If you are simply wanting to remove the paint why not simply use a stripper? Like Aircraft stripper? I realize there are pro's and cons here but 1. It's cheap. 2. You aren't going to ruin anything. 3. it works. Aircraft stripper, a paintbrush, a scaper and a DA with sticky discs and you can easily strip the paint off a car in a day. No, not every single crevice for a concourse job but for most anything else, it works.
dipping doesnt always remove fillers and sealers if they are properly applied and sealed well. youll get a little distortion of they metal with blasting but nothing a skim coat cant fix
Soda blast it! the last couple of items we have gotten media blasted...I don't care how much time you spend vac***ing, blowing,washing, whatever...there will still be grit present! with the soda...that stuff washes out. Dipping...I would rather have those last vestiges of factory primer left where you can't get to them than none at all.
blast it. i know the local dipper around here AUTO METAL PAINT STRIPPERS A.K.A.freddie the stripper has had problems with bleed through in the past they also louver deck lids crooked but thats an entirely different post .
I had my coupe blasted. I didn't have too bad of a rust problem before.....after I blasted it, I did. What happen is the guy who blasted it used a media that has to be cleaned/neutralized immediately after blasting. He had primed it and tiny surface rust spots started appearing. He made it right, he re-blasted it with soda and primed it in POR 15. I don't think I'll have any problems. Each method has it's ups and downs. I like media blasting better.
Never heard of it. Must be a 'Nawlins thang. BTW. This is a cool thread. I've never given that much thought to this subject, but ya'll have me thinking now. Good stuff. db
My car is getting body work done on it right now at bodylines inc. They went with stripping it. I don't think it is as hard on the sheet metal as dipping it, and not as messy as media blasting.
Dry ice - is faster and better than soda in time and cleanup issues. As far as effectiveness - I have'nt come across anyone having used it for auto/body work. Unlike heat build up from blasting...I guess dry ice wouldn't be a problem - except for....ice burns. hahaha I dunno. There are two rust issues on the back hinges of this Panel Van. Inside it appears to be mostly surface rust. On the floor board I didn't notice rust per se, but my screw driver went through it without any effort. I want to take the paint off - see what's underneath...
I've only had car frames dipped and ***orted body parts instead of an entire car, and I've not experienced any problems with the dipping. Some places cook them after dipping. I had a person soda blast a Corvette though and it came out pretty rough. I'd not do that again. Ol Blue
cooked 'em hunh? How 'ya like your car Sir? Rare, medium or well? hahah...I guess heating the steel sort of burns the chemical residue off. anyway here are some shots - obiviously some areas are going to be needing cut out entirely...I don't know whats under all that paint, 'cept what I can see that's rusted through: side profile: back Panel door hinges: Front windshield corners: Inside the roof panel - okay on top, can't see a dimple, but inside there is this patch: that's the worst of it..the two back outside hinges, two window corners and the inside roof patch...everything else "looks" okay...really...
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