What do you think of dipping parts

I used to do alot of electrical work for Unpaint Corporation in Atlanta, they would dip from small parts to whole car bodies, they come out bare metal! Talked to him and he is now in Lagrange, Ga so still within range of me. This is done by weight at $2.00 a pound, so what does a fender weigh or small bumpers or hood etc...could save lots of work?

 

from what i've seen, dipping works good and is better than media blasting. it gets all the crevices and you're not stuck cleaning up the media you blasted it with for the rest of the cars natural life. (i don't know if it gets that bad, but i've heard stories.)

 

If you dip small simple parts like fenders/bumpers you should be ok.Doing a whole body shell presents a big problem.I dont care how you do it,you wont get all the acid out of the nooks and crannies of the shell.You wont know it either till the fresh paint is a few days old.Simple parts with out the hiding places you cant get to to clean em completely.Should be fine.

 

Everything that came off my car was dipped. It comes out beautiful assuming its not full of filler. Then you get back pieces.
Cost me total of 340 dollars for all panels.Hood,trunk,doors,fenders,valences. No comparison to the labor and product cost to use stripper. Just stripping the shell was enough work. The only issue is you have to be very careful after painting and do a good job of rustproofing. The hood and trunk are the most difficult to rustproof in the frame work. I would do it again. It saves so many hours of work.
The panels are dipped and stripped then rinsed in a glycol base to neutralize the chemicals and add some corrosion inhibitors.
The panels look like the day Ford stamped them. Its impressive. You wash them down and prime them ready for body work.

Mavman is right I wouldnt do a shell. Too many places to hide chemicals.
If your hood and trunk are fairly clean you may consider doing them by hand. My hood was a mess I didnt have much choice.
I used a few cans of white lithium spray in the door shells. Lots of rust proofing in my panels.

 

you got a really good deal for that $350 you paid. It would seem really worthwhile for the smaller parts.
I have no idea how much the small bumpers weigh. I remember my front was pretty heavy, maybe 60? The rear was heavier, I'd say less than 80. That's my guess, I can't be too far off.

 

Rear Bumper weighs like 19 or 20 pounds i believe.

 

Yep really good deal. Somehow I dont think the cash made it into the till.

 

Have you ever wondered why our cars have not rusted from the inside out? Well maybe some of ours have in spots but If you think about it, inside the frame rails, under the hood and trunk supports do not have paint.

The reason that they do not rust is that many spots on ford cars including mavericks and comets have a special aluminum coating applied to under the cowl, lower frame rails, outside of lower rails, and other spots. This allows ford to assemble the cars without paint and keeps unpainted panels from rusting. Acid dipping removes all these coatings. Cars that have been acid dipped will look great at first but will eventually rust from the inside out. IMO acid dipping is great for a showcar that may only see 25 to 50 miles a year and is kept in an air controlled garage.

 

Good point, I was told to be sure and use a self etching primer instead of just primer, heard it is a little expensive, is that true?

 

Our guys washed the panels with water then sprayed my panels with something called metal prep. It smells like acid. Then they were primed/sealed.

 

Back in the days when I was doing Auto Restoration and Customization for a living we would send out the removable parts of the vehicle we were working on to be dipped, but not the body. For the body, we would use chemical paint stripper and good old fashioned sanding. We would have the frames media blasted (when they were removable ie: not a unibody).

Like was stated earlier, the reason we wouldn't dip the body or frames is getting everything out of the rockers was imposable and it will remove the coatings to prevent rust inside the parts you can't get to and refinish to prevent rustout.

Honestly, if I were considering doing it to one of my cars that is the way I would still go. You'll have less headaches in the long run and you really DON'T want to see a painter find out the hard way that there was chemical still in the crevices of a body he's spraying, trust me.

Hope this answers your question,
-Scott H.

 

Metal prep is an etching solution. This provides the primer something to adhere to. If you use a good self etching primer such as Dupont variprime this step can be skipped.

 

Is that why?... I always wondered since I've stripped part of my car and there is no paint at all under the trim... still amazed at how little rust there is (or ISN'T....!!!) in some areas.

But wouldn't self etching primer then regular primer be enough to prep and seal clean metal so it will last "another 40 years..."...?

 

Actually, no. Most primers are porous and absorb water causing rust to form under the primer and work from the bottom up. Primer / sealers would work for a short time, but they have an application life after you spray them and would end up doing the same thing as regular primer.

There are a couple of epoxy primers out there that actually seal the metal and would do like you are describing, but those tend to be expensive.

Hope this helps answer your question,
-Scott H.