I have the 72 stripped down and have done some work on the body. I keep wanting to go to bare metal over the whole car but have heard of horror stories about chemical bleed through....Have any of you guys done this?, I know the heater tubes in the longs will be gone but I don't plan on heat anyway. (don't really need it)
Is sandblasting more economical?, I really want to start fresh. Give me your thoughts.....

Thanks
Chris

Check your local yellow pages for a media blasting facility. Check with local rod builders or body shops that build custom cars.
Media(plastic beads) or walnut blasting is the best way to go.
CCLINBLASTLAND

Hey Chris, I'm investigating the same ...

Sandblasting does not seem to be a good idea. It's too abrasive. Meaning you can blast holes in the sheetmetal. You need to beadblast if you want to use this method.

Found some info about chemical dip on hotrodder sites. Somebody made that same remark about what could happen if not all the chemicals are washed off. Most of them did not seem to have any trouble though.

Hope that helps

BTW, I inquired about price for chemical dip here in Houston. It's about $1,000 including putting on an anti-rust coat in the end.
Please post the end result of your cost comparison. I'd be interested.

Complete media blast here in Portland Oregon area , will run about $400.
CCLINCAMP914

Chem dip will get everything out of the cracks that a blast wont. Downside is you need to have everything out of the car, basically down to a bare tub. One place a sand balst wont do well is the inside of the longs. A chem dip will soak all the shit outta there, where a blast will just load up sand and not get to the center of the longs where you want it to access.

One thing we've talked about in the VW side of the world is that dipping is NOT a good idea for a whole car. The reason is not so much that some of the dip will be left in the chassis but that it will strip any and all protective coatings/primers in the chassis, spaces and crevices that most likely are not easily accessable for recoating

Stick with media blasting. Blasting with baking soda, I've heard, works well too.

Media blasting is very good, but one must be careful still. The BIG problem with sandblasting is that it gets the panels too hot and they will warp; especially doors, lids, and fenders with big flat areas.

DaveP

I would agree with everything that everyone else has said! I sandblasted my 73 a couple of years ago and to this day I can still tap around on it and get sand out of it, even after spending about 2 weeks blowing out all of the cracks and crevices before primering it. I also managed to warp the sail panel area just a little bit, but not too much. I have never tried the chemical dip, but right after blasting my 73, I had a 65 mustang convertible blasted with plastic beads and was very impressed with it, but the beads still get into places that you wouldn't think they could. So, from now on, until I can try dipping one, I will stick with the plastic bead blasting!

sand, kleen blast etc, are no good. no good. the crap will be everywhere, the residual will grind every place it gets into, and you will not get it all out. every nook and cranny. after you put your car back together and turn on the heat for the first time, guess what blows out of the vents, falls from behind the dash? guess what gets down in the pedal assem, the seat rails, heater controls,etc.? save the sand for tanker hulls.

kevin
"ground down"

NO SANDBLASTING !!!!
i had mine sandblasted and it did the job, but that was almost a year ago and i STILL have sand seeping out of the cracks. it's a total mess ...

then, a few month ago, we had a tub (original 6) acid dipped and it turned out spotless. they dipped it in acid first, then in a neutralizing bath, then baked it in a giant oven to evaporate any leftover acid, then put it in primer.
it's perfect.
as for the heater tubes, just cut open the longs and take them out. only takes half an our per side.
they are NLA, keep em! (or sell em for big $$$) ...

if i had to do it again, acid dipping is the way to go!
Andy

Yeah, a primer dip would be GREAT!

Everyone who has seen our acid dip tub has walked away with a new attitude of what "doing it right" means. The tub has sat on stands for several months now since returning from the big dip. If acid was going to "pop up" it would have done it already.

The people who say acid will pop up over time must have had their cars dipped by shops that dont know their ASS from a hole in the ground. The shop we take our stuff too has been doing this for over 25 years and they regularly have 15-20 American cars stripped ready for dipping. If there was an issue.. they would have figured it out by now.


And as far as the BULLSHIT. The cars are welded together from the factory and THEN painted/coated. This means you can do the same damn thing AFTER the bath.


I will say this: they cannot successfully acid dip late model cars (1990 and up) because the acid is not very strong and will not take off factory paint.

Acid dipping for anything I build ground up. I still laugh my ass OFF when I see platic media under carpets of cars that where blasted. I also laugh at Andy's car with the sand...lol


B

hey! i'm having a beach party every time i go for a drive ...


Andy

Yep. Nothing like being sand blasted while you drive down the road. I can barely drive it with the windows down. It feels like the beach is in my eyelids after a few minutes.


B

After acid dipping, can the tub be galvinized? It would be nice if didn't rust out again in 10 years.

Hi Bigbohr
What part of Houston are you from. I grew up there. If I had the chance I would acid dip (no place to do it here in BFE). I just think it is better for the little hard to reach places.

Good luck

-Pete

This process looks to be the ticket. Of course they are in Detroit...

http://www.ecoatking.com/

ABOUT E-COATING:
E-Coating is actually a two step process. The first step is chemical stripping of the metal component. Stripping removes foreign materials from the part. Paint, body filler, undercoating, grease and rust are all removed. The end result is a clean, paint and rust free component.

The second step moves your part on a monorail system through a series of vats where it is washed and coated with a rust inhibitor. Epoxy primer is electrostatically applied and finally the component is cured in a bake oven.

The resulting E-Coat primer finish is an excellent primer base which is compatible with all conventional lacquer and enamel top coats.

Our two step E-Coat process offers many advantages:
Thorough cleaning by chemical stripping
Rust inhibiting pretreatment
Thorough primer coating coverage
Thermal curing to produce a high quality primer base

E-Coating can put primer on those hard to reach areas such as:
Internal surfaces
Deep recesses
Weldments
Fasteners
Small and large parts

banderson,

The tub can be galvanized.. see BravoHotels post above (Thanks Bravo)..

B

$2000. for a 13' (or under) complete car from:

http://www.ecoatking.com/

Thanks Guys!,
I will look into dipping the car locally if I can find a decent outfit.

SirAndy,
How do you cut the ducts out of the longs???
Slice and reweld, I'm having trouble visualizing this one??

brad posted pictures a while ago. lemmy see if i can find the thread ...

Andy

here you go:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...3676&hl=dipping

Thanks Andy,
Looks pretty straight forward, I got a est. of $850-$900 to dip, wash, prime
$400-$700 to Media blast, mmmmmmmm And all that left over media.

I'm leaning toward the big dip!!!!, But I hate to cut the longs.....they probably the straightest part of the car!!
Oh well, let wait and see

make sure there's also a "bake" in there somewhere
cutting the longs wasn't too difficult. and they're easy to weld back up again.
tack them in a few spots first, then lay down a nice seam.

if you drill out the spotwelds on the "cover" part and reuse those holes to weld that back in, no one will ever know because it'll cover the seam on the longs itself.

Andy

2 words...............Media Blast

same difference, but you won't get the beach feeling.
if you do a complete car, you'll never be able to get all of the stuff (sand/media/bead/whatever) out again.

it's a MPITA and i'm soooo sick of it,
Andy

ps.: for cleaning up smaller parts, that's a whole different story ...

If you haven't done so yet. Go to a dipper and ask to see some of their work. Go to a media blaster and ask to see some of their work. It's educational enough to see what each does in person. You will also be able to make a clear decision on what method you like best from seeing their results.

Work must be slow for the outfits I called today, They both seemed eager to start on my car asap....

I do beleive the dip outfit does bake it if I remember my conversation. He said they also rinse at least 3 times to remove the chemical. I'm still a little torn as my buddies at work I should blast due to the price difference,

Another pisser is that I have done some rust repair and bodywork and now I'm thinking of starting over....
Like Brad said though.......I will have the feeling of knowing I did it right.
Keep up the good ideas
I will post some pics of the car.
Thanks

let see if I can get some photos up

Crap!, It's not working.....the files must be too big.
any suggestions?

make em smaller

thanks Sir Smart...Andy

I green on the whole photo thing, just got a camera.
Showing to be 520kb

Please help

if you have windows, go to the Start Menu, then:

Programs/Accessories/Paint


open your pic in Paint, then go to the Image menu, click on "Stretch/Skew"
and resize the image by changing the Stretch percentage values.

once the pic looks about right on your screen, save it and try uploading again.

Andy

here goes
got an error
Cannot upload this type of file.
What type should it be?

jpg ...

ok......

wooo hooooo!

too small

make them at least double that size ...
Andy

ahhh, those simple pleasures ...

bigger is better

another

looks like you got pretty much everything off.

perfect candidate for acid-dippin !!!

look at brad's before and after pictures ...
Andy

BEFORE:



AFTER:

thats impressive...!!

mmmmm, I'm thinking the $1000.00 buck may be worth it!

here's the original thread about the dipped tub when it came back to the shop ...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...t=ST&f=2&t=4369

Andy

Thanks Andy,
You have been a big help.
I will keep everybody up to date on the dip

why is there a bar where the doors would go? keep it stiff for the dip?

thats what I read in the oridinal thread, to keep car from folding from wait of liquid

yepp, when they take it out, the trunks are full of liquid and the car would fold in half without the bracing ...

Andy

Does fiberglass stand up to dipping? Just wondering for those who may have 'glass fenders or flares and such.

supposedly, whatever this guy is using is NOT going to destroy FG.
the blue /6 didn't have any FG on it so i can't really say anything about it, but on a interesting side-note, we forgot a few plastic screw covers and plastic protectors for the wireharness clips and they survived unharmed ...

Andy