So the media blasting removed all of the undercoating off of the bottom and wheel wells?

Quick honey come look!...a nekid teener! Ohhh Baby! Hubba Hubba...
I just got wood........

Updated with pics last night. Check out my sig for the link.

Thanks for all the kind words. When a totally f***ed up jury can't get it right (just spent four days on trial and the jury felt sorry for the defendant - disbarred lawyer who stole his client's money)(remember I am in Kerry Land) it helps to know that I can forget all about being a lawyer and dealing with the corrupt and incompetent system we call the trial courts (if shes a witch she will float, if she drowns she is innocent comes to mind) and just occupy my mind with the 914 project. Believe me - the teener has got me through a lot of tough days! I feel pretty comfortable reassembling after paint because it will be the long, slow process - no body on the clock but me and the 914 community.

Gang,

This is (in my opinion) the BEST way to strip a chassis. PERIOD. Way to go William

I just spent about an hour looking over a friends chassis that was acid dipped. I had a 911 chassis acid dipped about 15 years ago. Here's what I've seen and experienced (real world gang):

1. You can't neutrilize or get rid of all of the acid. Period. There are areas on any Karman style uni-body tub that will retain the acid. Two years "after" the dipping my 911 tub was weeping acid. The tub I just went and looked at is doing the "exact" same thing. (careful in your critique Norcals... it was done there). Nothing against the firm doing it, they did an excellent job and the primer work was stunning... it's just a simple fact. There is acid weeping from almost all the seams. The bolt hole where you bolt on the front bumper? There's a couple of layers of metal sandwiched together there... weeping. There's a piece spot-welded in the passengers foot-well area before the bulkhead is welded in (meaning there's no way to access it)... weeping. What happens when acid weeps? It rusts the metal around it. Can you clean it up? Most of it by... BLASTING (can you imagine getting some sandpaper on that 1/16th of an inch of overlay on a seam?) You'll never get all of it.

2. What do you have to do if you dip a tub? Get the heater tubes out... right? How do you get the heater tubes out? Cut open the longitudinals. What is the "backbone" of a 914 chassis? The longitudinal. Are you willing to have MAJOR back surgery so you can get a facelift? "If" your longitudinals are toast and you don't mind acid weeping out of your car (and you've got the extra dough... see my next point) then maybe acid dipping is right for you. You're going to slice the bottom of you long. right under the door. You're going to slice up the sides. You're going to peel up your long. like a tuna can to get to the tubes (remember, this is the backbone of your 914). Are you going to weld it back in when you're done? Let me give you a clue. No. It's pretty much toast after that (why? considering the task ahead of you... bent metal, cuts, but welds on major structural components etc. It's cheaper and better to get new ones and properly weld them in). Add a couple of outer rocker and door sill kits to the price of your project.

3. Price. My friend paid $3,500 or more of his hard earned buck-a-roos to have the car acid dipped (not counting the metal work needed to repair the longs. after the back surgery). I paid $900 back in the late 80's (they didn't give a shit about tar paper and seam sealer back then). I think I remember William stating $1,000.00 Well worth it in the grand scheme of a proper restoration. It's worth 3x that.

Media blasting when done right will get you the desired results. Yes, sand blasting can warp panels if done at the wrong pressure etc. Walnut and plastic media are awesome. Soda can be hard to find do to the nature of the machinery needed (soda needs to be fed into the machine, not gravity feed) but if you can find one in your area, it's awesome. I'd rather spill a little sand around turn 4 at the autocross for a couple of years than have acid weeping on to my new paint for a couple of years.

If you're not doing a ground up restoration don't worry about it. If you are... please (for the sake of these cars and your wallet) consider those facts.

My $0.02 now donning my baking soda flame suit (baking soda is good at putting out fires isn't it?) for the acid heads out there.

Well thanks to this site, we will all know this turns out. After a great deal of investigation I was satisfied that the baking soda was the way to go.

I had my car dipped at a place in Ft. Worth that does a new, non-acid process. After a long debate with myself about the pros and cons of dipping I chose this specifically for the non-acid nature of the process.

It took a month, but whatever comes out of the seams in the future is harmless, and I can prove it by my experiences after paint was on the car.

Visit: www.metalrehab.com

Mine was the first 914 they had ever done. Cost $1300 and came out like this:

I see they acid dipped the vent on the building though...

Well, I was able to take advantage of the holiday and relatively good weather (they are talking about snow tomorrow!!!) and run down to Bellingham, MA and pick up the car. Here she is back in my driveway this afternoon.

Unfortunately, the media blasting did reveal another couple of small areas of rust penetration. These pictures are macros (very small area) and show the area of the door seal immediately under the bottom latch. These areas will be repaired before the paint.

The passenger side had a much larger area of penetration. I will probably have Chris Foley use his mig welder to repair these small sections. They are highly visible, so they must be fixed.

The driver's side rear quarter panel is really gonna be a challenge. I went to Ghia Specialties web site and found a metal working tool for shrinking metal and we will probably go hammer and dolly and shrinking tool to reshape this area. What a mess!

Here's another view. I will definitely post a bunch of pictures of the repairs to this section.

I am very pleased with the results. Try to have the car into paint by the end of November.

Here are the smaller parts that were blasted and primered.

i had wondered if one of john kelley's shrinking discs would help with the rear fender. it will be intertesting to see how it works.

kevin

We shall see. Chris Foley had suggested I check out his shrinking disc and my body guy was open to using it (hell, I paid for it so why not give it a try?). Stay posted, hopefully by the end of the month this panel will start to look kinda like the other side.

Piece a cake... those holes are tiny.

Eh gads, bummer. A danger of stripping a car. Time to hammer and dolley!!!

Good Luck

What a bitch, finding those areas of perf., but if thats all that showed up you didn't do too bad.

OK Chris, this is the part where you say "Maybe I can fix those little holes (and a small area under the jacking post)(will post picture tomorrow) so that you can get the car ready for paint. But yeah, you are so right, a few small surprises but all in all, the car is making steady progress and no real bad surprises (that rear quarter panel is really pretty rough though). What do you think?

Great thread. Just starting to gut the interior to get a better look my new purchase. Seeing such great examples of dedicated work is inspirational and educational.

Thanks.
Larry

Thanks Larry, I started this process more than a year ago. If you do a search you can find my three previous "Restoration" threads: disassembly of interior, exterior, suspension, hell hole repairs, etc. Also check out Gint's thread, Will's new thread and the fella in Germany who did the incredible long repairs

I think I can come up to your place next weekend maybe.
I think I want to put a small piece of metal under the area on the passenger sill, then fill in the holes from the top.
I can bring my dollies and my shrinking disk at the same time and do a little of the fender work if you like.

Absolutely, sounds like a plan. Let me know when to expect you and I will have things set for you.