acid dipping was used for lighting body panels on some ca am style road race camaros in the late 60s and it was alot faster than the other cars. For body repair i woundt do it myself. Media blasting/sandblasting I would.

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This sounds interesting, i heard of soda blasting but thats getting pretty serious.

I probably won't bother the last thing i want is to have a shell rust from the inside out like oan878.

The shell is actually in really good nick the rear quarters are knackered and part of the boot floor on the drivers side is non existant,but its nice and straight so i think i will just go the paint stripping way, atleast i know it won't distort of anything.

cheers
Nick

If by chance you are seam welding a competition car then acid dipping works well as it gets all the junk out from between the seams. As mentioned the car needs to be properly rinsed with a neutralizing agent...work of specialists.
I would just get the thing bead blasted as these days the make beads that will strip it to bare metal without damaging the panels.

Tom

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oh not again....

you can have bi-carb blasting done now too - will strip paint off a coke can without warping it.

Quote: I don't see anywhere in this post where it says that the acid diping is for the purpose of removing paint.
Acid diping was done in the 70's for the purpose of dissolving sheet metal in order to reduce its thickness and thereby reducing its weight. This was a trick used by professional drag racers and it was popular for a while.
If you are building a drag car, an acid dipped body will have a limited service life unless you can get all of the acid out from every fold or seam in the body & you will need to ensure that any lost strength is replaced. [which ads weight]

If you really do want to paint strip, then forget any thought of allowing any acid to touch any part of a car.

Fanta blasting anyone?

I agree. don't acid dip. A big can (or two) or paint stripper on the flat bits, and bead blast the rest. Only do the door jams if they are rusted and need treatment.

Acid dipping is ok for cars built in the 30s, they had a chassis, and very few 'double panels'. A datto has sills, chassis rails and all sorts of other places for the acid to sit and chew away.

I would never recommend a full body back to baremetal respray. It's too costly and time consuming. If it ain't rusting or falling apart, leave it alone.

Good luck,
Chris

dodgeman had his 1000 coupe lime blasted. Sand blasting is too hard on the panels, and can cause distortion. (especially on thin panel steel, like dattos) How bad is your shell? Unless it is already quite good, or it's really bad and you want to spend lots of money making it right, I wouldn't advise bare metaling it.

what sort of price is someone looking at for acid dipping???

for comparison my friend had the entire outside and engine bay of his 240z bead blasted for $500 (includes coat of primer applied after), he said this was almost 1/2 the price of all other quotes he got though (my bro later had him do some doors and bonnet for $50 per panel)

the thing with acid dipping, it takes the paint off every where.
like in side the sill, rails and pillars. if you don't get paint back on these surfaces they will rust from the inside out.
Not a good thing at all!!!

I had my 2 door sedan sand blasted.
The key to this is to only do around the edges of the large areas eg. roof,1/4s. paint strip the rest. this stops the panels heating up and getting dents.

Never leave bare metal uncovered prime it or cover it with an old blanket between working on it.

Bead blasting is the best way. You will have to sand blast the bad areas as beed will not kill the rust like sand does. Then you will have to clean all the sand & beads out & treat the rust,etch prime the whole car with good quality 2 pack etch primer. Be carful the moisture from your skin can cause the cleaned steel to get surface rust on it.
PPG have a good etch primer that you paint the car with & you can work on weld over. & its a nice green colour.
But to answer your question i think acid will be bad because if you dont clean it all out properly it will rust over time.
I hope this info helps
Coops.