Looking for a resource

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scestes

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Anyone know of a shop that will chemical dip/boil out my CS shell, or alternatively is ther anyone in the bay area that does soda blasting of shells? Looking at my options on the reassembly of my CS has me wondering if it's easier to go with a dip or soda blast solution vs me taking a grinder with a shit load of wire wheels to the engine bay, bottom side, cockpit, and trunk... I need some shops to call for pricing, but don't exactly know where to look for numbers.
 
You can also look for hotrod shops, powder coating, etc. They all know each other and would probably have a recommendation.

Dan
 
I've been researching this very topic for our Alfa. Plastic media blasting is an option, but for me it's problematic as the stuff gets everywhere, and continues to shake out of the car once it's been reassembled, leaving a fine dust all over the interior (and even in the gauges if you're not careful). I've seen a couple cars that had this done and both had this happen. The guy in Livermore can be found by Google, but I think it's called "Bay Area Media Blasting". There's a place in Van Nuys (I don't know the name but I read about it on the Alfa Wiki) which will dip your entire shell, but of course rust is an issue if it's not treated immediately. Finally, there is soda blasting which apparently also has its benefits and liabilities. It's good because it doesn't put a lot of heat in to the panels, but it's apparently sometimes problematic in that it leaves a film which must be pressure blasted off or the primer won't stick.
 
I was looking into soda blasting as it seemed like the best method for removing paint and rust, then I saw a forum discussing chemical stripping which led me to a website: http://redi-coat.com/ . Their process (and I'm paraphrasing here) of chemical stripping; zinc phosphate dipping; and ecoating looks intriguing. The various steps seem like they would address the possibility of the chemical stripper leaching out later on and ruining an expsensive paint job.

At $2500; they're not cheap (about $1000 more than most soda blasting estimates I've seen), but the peace of mind that every nook and cranny has been treated might be worth it. Another drawback is that you have to take everything off the car. Has anyone out there had this process done with their coupe?

HTH,

Walt
'73 Fjord CSi (5spd; 3.5L; 1.3 Motronic)
 
Thanks for all the great info guys. Definitely some info to wrap my head around now. The 2002 forums also yielded this place in the bay area if anyone else is interested in these options.

http://www.norcalstripping.com/

Their prices look impressive, but as someone on the 02 forums has warned, these are "posted minimums".

I think I have actually decided to forego the whole chemical immersion process for one simple reason a friend reminded me of. It will remove everything down to bare metal everywhere. Including places I'm not going to be able to reach with a paint gun. Simply put, I may start it rusting from the inside out even worse if I dip it. I think I'm going to look for a soda option, or take the wire wheel to the majority of the car, and the body sander to the exterior of the body.
 
After spending 2 hours with an angle grinder and a wire wheel, I think I'm going to end up doing this myself. This took me 2 hours to do, and honestly as I realized the most efficient way to hold the grinder, I started getting pretty quick at it. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow with a different grinder that has a grip on the top of it and see how I do. Honestly though, I'm pretty pleased with what I got done in 2 hours.

[Broken External Image]:http://gallery.xfiler.com/albums/2800cs-EngineBay-PaintStrip/IMG_0825.sized.jpg
[Broken External Image]:http://gallery.xfiler.com/albums/2800cs-EngineBay-PaintStrip/IMG_0827.sized.jpg

I've been working a lot lately, and I have to say it's been nice to be able to work on the car...
 
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