Car Acid Dipping Cost? In Texas?

Has anyone here had there car dipped in the acid vat to remove every bit of paint and ****? What does that run? Anyone know of a place in Texas? Is it a good or bad idea? I want to start fresh on my '54 customline. I didn't find anything to do with acid dipping with the search function.

 

I really think you might want to look into Soda blasting. Try PM So-Tex for more details.

 

Friend had a 46 Buick dipped at a place in Indianapolis. Think it cost $1,500. Big car. It came out very nice. But it was solid going in.

 

There is a place here not far from me that dips them,I have a friend that has had a couple of cars done there and If my memory serves me right it was like $2000.00 per vehicle one vehicle was a 55 nomad and the other a 56 chevy truck. Pesconally I had my car bead blasted back in 1998 over in Spring Texas and I thought it turned out GREAT! I have read and heard that sometimes due to whatever chemicals it is dipped in there may be a problem when it comes time to painting it.
Seems there is some problems with paint and primer bonding to the metal when certain chemicals are used. I know that some years back it was relatively cheap to get bodies dipped, but now Due to EPA and TNRCC regulations! Acid dipping shops and chrome plating shops have had to increase prices due to the cost of doing business and following the NEW Enviromental Laws of disposing of used up chemicals!
Personally If I were you I would look at going with the Soda Blast, Bead Blast, ETC. They are even now using crushed walnut shells. Those are a good way to get a fresh start and get everything off the car other than dipping. Although if dipping is what you want to do then send me a PM and I will get the name and phone number to the Dipping place.
I know it is located East on Hwy 242 just off IH 45 and that is just South of Conroe Texas. It is a little HOLE IN THE WALL shop ran by some Mexicans. I was actually just there last year to have some A/C registers for my house dipped if the cost was not too much! When I showed the 8" X 10" metal registers to the Mexican guy he said $20.00 each! I LOOKED VERY SURPRISED AND SAID! DAMN I can buy new aluminum ones from Home Depot for that!
Well I had 8 of them to do so I said NO THANKS for $160.00 I will do them myself! I just took them back home and blasted them in my cabinet and done them myself,took me about 6 hours to get them done and primered and epoxy paint installed but they looked great. Total cost $ 20.00 TOTAL not counting my time! But I am retired so time doesent't count does it! So if you want the contact information I will get it for you but you better be setting down and don't fall off the chair when they give you a price! LOL

 

I lost a fab set of doors for a Boss 302 that I had because they didn't neutralize the acid properly. the acid ate the bottom seams. I'd media blast.

 

the acid place you are talking about Bob is across the street from my office. It will be $1500+ depending on the size of the car. The media blasing place is called "Eviro clean" and it's on spring Cypress. That's the way I would go. The chemical hangs in the seems. Tell me what kind of car and I'll inquire for you. Shoot me a pm. TP

 

There is a place in DFW .. Believe its called Redi Strip
I asked them about 3 years ago, it was $1600.00 then if you brought your car apart(doors off, trunk, hood, etc. )

I'll tell yah, if you have some small rust holes, when you are done

You will be missing areas a big as a pizza box

 

For the price of chemical stripping, my shop will completely blast (on the twirler) all surfaces and then epoxy prime (unless a different coating is wanted) the complete car! Cost of materials is included.
Blasting will give you peace of mind that your paint won't bubble or flake off in the future. You will also rest easy knowing that primer is covering all areas that was stripped.
Soda blasting leaves a residue that must be neutralized before painting for proper bond. I personally don't think that soda blasting should be used in our hobby...
We are car guys and know how to treat metal. Be careful who you send your car to...

 

Plastic media blasting is the way to go.

 

There is a place in Jackson, Miss. that does electro-alkaline dipping. This is not an acid dip process. They are due east of you on I-20.
http://www.metalfinishings.com/index.html

 

A big problem with acid dipping is hydrogen embrittlement, as most of you know with old car bodies they usually have cracks you have to fix, the hydrogen embrittlement after an acid dip makes the cracking problem even worse.

 

Yeah, so blasting certainly seems like the best course of action.

 

In acid dipping every surface is stripped, even the flanges, seams etc. Areas we cannot see that would be difficult to impossible to recoat/prime only leading to vulnerable rust issues.

 

Acid dipping would strip areas in which we can't see like seams, flanges etc. This would make it difficult to impossible to recoat/prime these areas leading to corrosion issues.

 

I agree. Steve kicks ***, is portable, and does a damn fine job.
Reasonably priced, too.

 

We have Redi-strip up here in BC, but it is reverse electrolysis not acid dipping. Does not harm good metal at all. I'll admit it isn't cheap but it sure works.

 

A customer of mine used Metal Rehab in DFW on his 38 Chevrolet. It came back looking real good. He's primed it about 4 or 5 years ago and it hasn't bubbled yet.
That being said, I had to split some seams to do some work on the car and there was still rust between the flanged panels. So if you're trying to get rid of paint, surface rust, etc. it looks like it'll work great. If you want to get rid of EVERY speck of rust in the car, the only way I see to do it is to drill every spot weld and seperate every panel on the car. I think this will get pretty labor intensive.


http://metalrehabinc.com/automotive.htm

 

You need to be careful about soda blast. Tha that process is designed for stone buildings & monuments. If you do not remove EVERY trace if it...it will come back & haunt you. Media blast (Plastic, starblast etc) is the way to do it. Just make sure you get someone that understands how to do it. Blasting a 70 year old body is slightly different than stripping heavy equipement

 

I know thet the place on sprig sypress di ny chevelle and did a really good job. If I remember correctly it was $800.00 for blasting only and that was in 1998. I think NTXCustoms offer is a steal because I bought metal prep to coat mine in after the blasting to keep the rust off until all sheetmetal work was completed. I coated , coated,coated and coated and still got some surface rust. With there offer to epoxy prime everything that don't sound bad to me knowing what I spent back in 1998 on my Chevelle restore. If I had a car now and I was going that route I would jump on that offer.
I will tell you one thing! When you have one stripped by whatever methods! You may be surprised at the outcome and shape it is in! I seen things I never noticed before stripping but at that point I was COMMITTED and kept going forward! It is all work! some RODS just take a little more than others! LOL Good luck in whatever way you choose to go but If it was me mediablast is how I would go again!

 

Take it from someone who knows fellas, Soda Blasting Will Not come back to haunt you like dipping will. Not to discredit anyone but the residue left behind by Soda Blasting is easily washed off any metal surface using WATER. One of the characteristics of Baking soda is that it is water soluble, meaning it dissolves in water. That's right water, I recommend washing the car in soap and water, then rinsing with water. I know it doesn't sound right, water and bare metal, but trust me it will not flash rust. Baking soda doesn't agitate the metal like sand or other abrasive medias do, so that's why it won't flash rust.
And if you want to go the extra mile to get the soda off your metal, rinse it off with vintager. It smells bad, but that will dissolve the residue as well. Soda Blasting has many different uses, and automotive paint removal is one of the biggest, I blast for a living, and Baking Soda is my most used media just because of it's ability to remove the paint without hurting what's under it.
Hope this clears up some of the misconceptions with Soda Blasting, if any one has any questions email or call.

 

Its all down to the individual to choose which route to go, I just want them to be well informed of there decision. Soda blasting leaves a residue thats alky in nature (I'll look up all the info I have many tech sheets gov, military, and collage based) and thats why it won't rust, not due to its non-abrasive nature. Soda blasting was made for stone and building cleaning, made popular by the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, even these guys recommend not painting over soda.

As of today Southern Polyurethanes and PPG strongly suggest not to paint over soda maybe more. I think these guys would know

Read all of this link for starters:
http://spi.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=156&highlight=soda&mforum=spi

 

Hi y'all-

It has been over 3 years since this was last discussed, but I am curious to know what the current thoughts and experiences are of those who have tried these two forms of paint/rust removal. I am considering each at the moment, plastic media blasting versus dipping. I live in Austin and there is a reputable place locally that can do the plastic blasting for about $1400 (Commercial Services). The closest dipping outfit I can find is in Arlington (Metal Rehab), which is a good 3-4 hour drive away.

For that reason it would normally be a no-brainer, but I ran into a problem. The media blasters have told me that they cannot remove any of the seam sealer that is present on my sedan. Yikes! I say that because my car has a LOT (I mean a *LOT*) of seam sealer all over it. This is because it came from a place where there is a significant amount of snow and therefore salt on the roads. Overall, the vehicle has held up well to that environment, due no doubt to the tons of sealer that they put on this thing.

Anyway, for that reason I am considering going the dipping route. The Metal Rehab website doesn't make it clear whether or not they do unibody vehicles, but I would think that they do. All feedback appreciated, thanks!

Jerry

 

Any media blaster can remove seam sealer, I do it all the time. I own a blasting company in Oklahoma. It takes more time and you may not get every bit of it, but it can be done. It's just like undercoating- the media hits it and either bounces off or is absorbed. You have to use the media as more of an air-s****er, peeling it off instead. I just did a fender today that had 60-year old undercoating on it. peeled it right off. I suggest crushed gl***, it leaves a nice 80-120 grit surface you can prime right over.

 

I love the work Redi-Strip does.

 

The 38 I talked about 3 years ago still hasn't lifted any primer.
I had Metal Rehab strip and prime my 56 pickup cab a couple of years ago. What I like about it is they stripped rust out of places you probably couldn't blast--under the dash, nooks and crannies.
I'd do it again.
Larry T

 

Wow, thank you for the quick feedback y'all, I appreciate it!

71buickfreak - thank you for that insight from a professional media blaster (you). I thought that it was a bit odd that they couldn't remove it, but then again I think that they only use plastic media on vehicles and that is the reason that they wouldn't be able to remove it. This is what they told me:

"...Just spoke with the boss and he said that we would not be able to take out that sealer. He said that our media would just bounce off of it. So we will just have to work around that."
​

And it was that last sentence that made me nervous. So I dunno. I don't want to pay ~$1400 only to have sealer left around that I then have to remove myself. Or else remove all of it prior to taking it to the media blasters. Given the two options I would go the latter route, as I would want to get back a clean car from them, not one that still had removal work to be done.

And so that is why I began considering the dipping option. Larry T: thank you for your feedback on Metal Rehab and the pictures you posted. Great information. From what I can gather the process involves the first dipping (environmentally friendly dipping that is) which then involves power washing afterwards and a possible second dipping. This removes all of the paint, grease and sealer. Then comes the second dipping which takes care of the rust and the final is the primer. Is that correct? If you don't mind me asking, how much did that run you? Ballpark numbers are ok ... don't wanna pry too much. Just trying to get a comparison with the quote from the media blasters.

Finally, attached is a picture of the driver's side rear section of the trunk in my sedan. I have circled all of the sealer that they used in this section of the car. You can see how thick it is at the bottom. I sent this picture to the media blasters who were kind enough to look at it and then bolt.

Thanks!

Jerry

 

Jerry,
It's been a couple of years since I had it done, but it was less than $1500.00 to strip the cab and shoot it with epoxy primer. It seemed like quite a bit of money at the time (still does), but it sure shows you what needs replaced/reworked and the primer keeps it from flash rusting until you get around to working on it.
Larry T


BTW, I did find a little rust when I was working on the 38 and split some seams open, but I don't think there would be any way of getting rid of it all unless you seperated every seam in the body, cleaned it and put it back together-just about an impossible task. And I've done a little work on the 56, ground the primer off in places and not found any rust under the primer.

 

Don't get me wrong, it would be a huge PITA to get all of that off with a blaster. Dipping has it's pros and cons, the biggest being that you have to completely dis***emble the car (you can blast around a lot) and the fact that it will remove paint from areas that can't be repainted can lead to potential problems, BUT dipping is also very effective. Cost wise, blasting is going to be cheaper.

 

71buickfreak and Larry T-

Thanks much for your feedback, I appreciate it, as will others who come along in the future no doubt. (I had completed a rather extensive Google search prior to finding the information on this forum - then when viewing the other content of the forum I was just glad that I had found it in general!)

To repay I will post and keep everyone abreast of what I end up doing for my sedan. Funny that 71buickfreak mentioned stripping the car because that is what I am in the process of doing. I kinda thought you needed to do that prior to taking either approach, blasting or dipping. So it's a good education to know that you don't for the blasting. Interesting. I can also see that blasting will be cheaper. I began at the rear bumper and am moving forward, about to begin in the engine bay.

I must confess to leaning more towards dipping at this point even though it will be more expensive and more of a pain in the a$$ to haul my vehicle to/from DFW, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. I plan on speaking with the folk at Metal Rehab on Monday to get a quote and ask a few questions.

Thanks again,

Jerry

 

Gang-

Just a quick update. I spoke with a guy at Metal Rehab this afternoon. He was friendly and helpful, explaining the process from start to finish. They do indeed work with unibody vehicles, though he recommended removing the subframe and doing it separately since my sedan is a hard top and not a convertable. Not sure how comfortable I feel with that idea, but I'll give it some thought. Also, you can bring your car in on a rotissorie; that was my plan but their website didn't make mention of it so it wasn't clear whether or not they could/would handle that. They do, he said that they had a rotissorie in the shop right now that a car came in on a short time ago.

Anyway. Here's what I learned regarding the process and the ***ociated costs. Keep in mind that this is current as of today, so no guarantees at any point beyond that. There are two basic options:

1) Stripping and rust removal with a rust inhibitor applied (which was optional, you could choose to not have it applied)
2) Stripping and rust removal followed by a layer of epoxy primer.

Prices were:

Option 1) A door, fender, hood or trunk lid = $165 each; car body = ~$1700 - $1800, depending on the car

Option 2) Same as option 1 plus the cost of priming which was: Door, fender, hood or trunk lid = $110; car body = $900

So option 1 would be about $3300 and option 2 would be an additional $1900 or so.

That's what I have so far. I'll post again when I decide what to do and give a report on how it went.

Thanks,

Jerry