Another LE RE Restoration, Just Started Options

[ZachP]

After all these years of storing this thing, I finally have the time to start working on it. I started with the pass side rear fender area. I need some suggestions. This being an LE, should I replace the whole fender or just patch in new sail panels? The door jams need to be replaced also, so it would be nice to weld back in a complete fender. What do whole fenders go for? I'm pretty sure I'll need the driverside because it looks like someone took a hammer to it right behind the door. I'll post pictures of that soon. The support piece behind the sail panel needs (both sides I think) to be replaced also. Am I going to have to get that from a doner car? Mittelmotor has only the left side.

[John]

What is this "acid" dipping? Is that something in California?

When I have had tubs dipped, it is actually a very strong BASE, not acid. We used a company called Redi-Strip.

During the process, the car is cleaned, the paint is stripped, the car is rinsed, the car is dipped in the Alkaline (BASE) rust removal tank, the car is then rinsed and dipped into the phosphate tank and then is drained.

The dipping place that we used did not put any protective coating on the car other than the phosphate coating.

While it is true that there will be remains of the phosphate weeping for a few months, it does dry. If the car is mounted on a roticorie, the draining process is dramatically shortened.

It looks like the final phosphate coating was not done on the car in the pictures. Our track car was dipped with this same process almost 20 years ago in Cincinnati, OH. The last car we had dipped was about 3 years ago.

At least on our track car (dipped 20 years ago) there is virtually no rust even on panels that were not accessable to paint (when I recently opened the longs to take a peek, they were as clean as they were just after dipping).

I strongly believe that the phosphate coating is a critical last step in the dipping process.

just my $0.02