Body Dipping

[Sven]

Has anyone ever had their e9 dipped to remove paint and rust? I am considering this option. The car has the front fenders, rear quarter panels, top of nose (at front) and rocker covers removed (as well as hood, boot, and doors). There are a lot of hidden areas that I believe would be difficult to get at with media/sand blasting (inside the 'A' pillars, , back sides of rocker structure and some areas around the nose, etc). I would not dip the roof - amazingly it has absolutely no rust - to avoid disturbing all the foam padding between the structure and roof skin.

It seems the biggest controversy surrounding dipping relates to the seams and later leakage into the paint. As it stands most of the seams on the car have approximately 50% surface rust, more or less. So they are not that pristine to begin with. None of the outer skin pieces would be dipped, so this is probably not an issue.

Any good or bad experiences out there?

Here is link to the process as described by a "local" company.

http://www.metaldipping.com/process.php

Thanks in advance.

 

[jmackro]

Sven:

There are two kinds of people in this world: the dippers and the blasters.

I am a confirmed blaster, and would no more consider soaking my car in caustic chemicals than I would consider pouring sand into my crankcase. But, that's must me - I guess others must be OK with this concept, because the dipping industry seems to survive.

My feeling is that even though blasting doesn't get into every minute cavity of the car, it does enough. And, the media doesn't reactivate long after the car has been painted everytime the humidity goes up. But, hey, that's just my prejudice - if you want to dip your coupe, have at it.

 

[jonathan49bat]

Sven/jay

I'm with jay on this one - this seems to some like the holy grail as it reduces the time taken with media blasting.

I had a friend put his VW through this process in the UK and despite what seems like a thorough cleansing and electro plating - 6 months later rust streaks were appearing from the seams!

I asked the company to provide me with details of other E9's that had gone through the process and they chose to ignore my requests despite asking on a number of occasions!

My conclusion was that this process could rot the car out faster than if it had been left alone - media blasting you can control even though rust may still lurk in the seams.

Consider media blasting and then sealing comprehensively with POR 15

Richard

 

[Malc]

I agree with the blasting rather than dipping, mainly (in my case) because I have control over the process.
If a car is dipped and the shell isn't braced properly as the rust is removed the car can fold up because the rusty metal may of been supplying just enough support.
While dipping in itself is OK it's the method that is often wrong
To ensure the dipping works the shell needs to be turned through 360 degrees in a cage to ensure the chemicals get everywhere and there are no air/fluid traps.
Then this needs to be done again in the "washing process"

Unfortunately most restorers do not spend enough time rust proofing (cavity wax, underseal etc) the car after all the hard work to make it look nice and shiny.
Malc

 

[gazzol]

Dipping is great and would be my prefered choice BUT and it is a big but only if you can get the shell dip primed electrophoretically afterwards. By running an electric current through the shell to the tank via the paint the paint is forced by electrical attraction in to every nook and cranny and you shouldn't get the rust at the seam issues mentioned above. Be warned specialist, etablished experts ( only one in the UK springs to mind) in the above charge over £5000.
The reality is that unless you plan on spending that sort of money that blasting is the safest option as it only removes the paint that you can put back on.

 

[jan]

dipping

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jancarfactory/DeTomasoPanteraGR4#

this is a pantera who have been dipped in acid in Oslo/Norway, and iam not sure i would recomend it , but maybe we have only seen the bad examples so far.
Any one with some good experiance please come forward.

 

[CoachKel]

The shop I worked at years ago had cars dipped somewhat regularly. We saw 2 coupes dipped and then electrostatically epoxy primed. 20 years later, one of the coupes that got dipped looks marvelous. The key was before the electrostatic priming, they had the coupe baked at 300f for 30-45 minutes.

Has anyone ever had their e9 dipped to remove paint and rust? I am considering this option. The car has the front fenders, rear quarter panels, top of nose (at front) and rocker covers removed (as well as hood, boot, and doors). There are a lot of hidden areas that I believe would be difficult to get at with media/sand blasting (inside the 'A' pillars, , back sides of rocker structure and some areas around the nose, etc). I would not dip the roof - amazingly it has absolutely no rust - to avoid disturbing all the foam padding between the structure and roof skin.

It seems the biggest controversy surrounding dipping relates to the seams and later leakage into the paint. As it stands most of the seams on the car have approximately 50% surface rust, more or less. So they are not that pristine to begin with. None of the outer skin pieces would be dipped, so this is probably not an issue.

Any good or bad experiences out there?

Here is link to the process as described by a "local" company.

http://www.metaldipping.com/process.php

Thanks in advance.