Another LE RE Restoration, Just Started Options

[ZachP]

I had a car media blasted a couple of years ago for about $600 or $700 and wasn't too impressed, although, now that I think about it, I think it was sand blasted. The car was pretty gritty when I got it back. Would something as soft as baking soda take off seam sealer?

[Eric_Shea]

I'm with DaveP.

The thread he has linked has some really interesting facts about acid dipping. Check page 3.

I just visited a tub yesterday that was acid dipped and primed well (by Brad's source). They have spent "days" cleaning up the weeping acid and it's still not done.

Please read that link before you make a final decision on acid dipping. Here's the link again and I'll post some pictures of what is currently happening to this chassis:

Check My Post on Page 3

6 months later acid is still weeping from this tub.
You need to pull your heater tubes if you acid dip. The only way to do that is to slice the longitudinals (better referred to as the "backbone" of your car)
You'll then need to replace the longitudinals which will require major metal work.

Again... read that post and see how well William's car turned out.

Now for the pictures...

[Eric_Shea]

nudder

[Eric_Shea]

more...

[Eric_Shea]

more...

[Eric_Shea]

Last one...

[davep]

Eric, those pictures are scary. I'd be having nightmares. Zach, the sandblasting is very hard on the sheet metal, and can cause large flat panels to warp. I'd avoid it also. The speed at which the soda is shot should take off almost anything. However, the more crap that can be removed by hand the better. Tar coating is one of those things. However, it means that a less than perfect job has to be done with the tar removal.

[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