THSCC Forums

Richard:

Here's the URL http://www.coldjet.com/

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Brad

Anders hit the nail on the head with the duration of the job comment. We stripped an old Beetle to bare metal when I was in the Navy and had access to stripping tanks and grit blasters. Within a few years there were rust streaks near most of the welded seams and body joints.
The primary problem with wet processes is that they remove all paint and protective coatings way down into the seam areas. At the factory the entire unibody is dipped for the first coat of primer. The primer then gets into all of the seams and seals things up pretty nicely. Unless the stripped body is dipped for protection, there will be bare metal inside each metal joint that no spray process will ever recoat. Then every time the day/night cooling cycle occurs a little bit more moisture will enter the joint as vapor and stay as liquid. Sooner or later the bare metal will be rust. This is not as much of an issue for garaged trailer queens, but for a car that is "ridden hard and put away wet" it can be problematic.

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

I heard back from Matt about his rally car. He said he hasn't had any problems with the paint. He said that after the acid dip they did another dip in a neutralizer after the acid bath. It sounds like that is a key step if you want to do it correctly. It sounded like he didn't have any regrets but did say that it didn't make sense unless you planned to have the entire car stipped down. If I remember he was saying it would be around $1400-1500 for the dip process. Which actually is more than I want to spend.

At this point I am leaning on whatever is cheapest and may try a dip process if the operator can show what they do to mitigate/eliminate the problems mentioned so far. I am going to try to call around to fine someone local and see what the prices are.

There are discussions like this in the 914 community. Some use chemical to strip on their own, some dip and some blast. Some have done all three. And opinions vary wildly. About the only concensous is to not try to blast the car yourself with an inexpensive blast kit. And never use really abrasive grit on the body panels. Either that you will heat it up and warp the panel or etch it enough to require significant surface prep to return it back to a smooth and paintable surface.

Charlie had some good comments about post dip protection. On the 914 all cars have rust to some extent and also the bodies were not galvanized or very well protected when they left the factory. Most 914 owners who are doing to do what I am doing do extensive resealing of seams as well as coating many rust prone areas. The use of Phosphoric Acid to treat all surfaces with something like Ospho http://www.ospho.com/ in conjunction with an epoxy product like POR 15 http://www.por15.com/ . That is pretty much standard practice if you are "doing it right".

Thanks again for the comments.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.