Sand blasting, soda blasting ,acid dipping

[Archangel]

Hi guys,
Im doing nut & bolt restoration on my stag and Im at a bit of a dilemma. At the moment the car is a stripped shell and I want to take it back to the bare bones, the problem being Im not sure what the best process is to get it there. Sand blasting, soda blasting and acid dipping seem to be options I have, but all seem to have their faults.

SANDBLASTING bends panels,can't get in everywhere and you can't get it all out !

SODABLASTING is kinder to panels but supposedly won't remove rust !

ACID DIPPING will do the job in every department but there are reports of acid oozing from the car long after it has been done !

As you can see Im at crossroads with this and was wondering if anyone could share their experiences or advise on the above processes or something different if at all possible ?

Thanks........Richard

[martin]

Hi Richard, soda blasting does remove rust - if you can see it. Dipping is the best, but most expensive option, it's not acid dipping, but chemical dipping, after the dip, the chemicals are neutralised then high pressure washed, so no question of oozing, it gets at the bits you can't see, and if followed up properly will last forever. Enjoy, and congratulations on achieving the status of hero - respect ! Martin.

[Bandit1200]

Hi Richard
there is a company in Dudley, West Midlands advertised in classic car mags. www.surfaceprocessing.co.uk. I have used them to clean and protect my new old stock rear n/s wing.
I visited their factory and saw whole car bodies immersed and treated.
No connection etc, but if I were in your position I would give them a call
Hope this helps
Steve

[staginhiding]

Hi Richard,

I was at the same point as you and had looked in to all the options.

When I talked to the soda blaster Guy he did say the he needed to use more aggressive media to remove the rust,but the soda would manage the paint removal..

I would have gone down the dipping route if it wasnt so expensive.I just couldnt justify the outlay..

I ended up having it carefully sandblasted(you need the right person) and I am very pleased with the result.
The main downside is getting the sand out and keeping it out as it keeps re-appearing from all the crevices,so its time consuming..

I only got it back last week and the chap has done a very good job and it fitted my budget..

[Rubce]

I looked at the SPL route for the GT6 but was job smacked at the price. Way about my budget! If you can afford it, go for it but book early as they were taking booking four months in advance when I enquired in September.

Bruce

[edd]

This is a subject that goes through my mind every time I spend yet another hour bare metalling my car by hand.
I chatted to the surface processing guy and he said a stag to dip is £800 but then you pay extra for doors bonnet etc then you still need it blasted. I'm not sure but with transport costs £4000 I'd say
I'm actually pleased with doing it by hand. I have seen inside chassis that have been dipped and the rot is still there. It doesn't get into the seems either.I think it's a big labour saver. You will still need to cavity wax it just like any other classic. I think if I would have dipped mine the whole car would have disappeared in the process
Edd

[Mpower738]

I just had a car dipped by SPL, the lead time quoted was three weeks, and in the end it was more like 5, but certainly not four months!!! It was expensive, just to have it dipped was about a grand, and I did all the transport myself. If you want the double dip, and the electrophoretic priming afterwards, then it really is megabucks.

The outside of the tub and chassis were clean bare metal, but earlier comments in this thread about the inside of cavities and between seams etc are correct, there were areas where it was still rusting out from within, and if they were box sections like on a Stag it would be impossible to treat properly without undoing spot welds and taking the whole thing apart.

I was a fan of the process before I used them, but now I'm not so sure. It certainly does save a lot of hard work, but I've come to the conclusion since that underseal removal by hand and then blasting is the best way.

[dasadrew]

The outfit that did mine was set up professionally to strip classics. Due to the different advantages and disadvantages of each method, they used several different ones on the car. It wasn't isolated to just one method.

Basic metal structure: Normal "sand" blasting (not actually sand anymore due to H&S. It's common to use slag granulate from a metal foundry)
Sensitive bits like where the original joins had been soldered: different media including walnut shells
Underseal: Dry ice. The underseal is frozen and then blasted off in one go
Door interior: They were going to do a chemical dip but, when I explained that I'll be taking the door skins off, they waited for that and used sandblasting

Residue is a hot topic for all methods and two years later there is still the occasional puddle of blasting media under the car!

Surely a proper set up would also have access to several different methods which reflect the needs of the different body parts?

Drew

[staginhiding]

I think its all down to how deep your pockets are.In my case deep pockets,short arms.....

[Stag therapy]

I had my body shell and doors dipped earlier this year at a place near Preston, Lancs, who then powder coated it in primer it to save bare metal corrosion. The cost as I recall, was cheaper than SPL, and I negotiated a reduced price as I wanted the bonnet and boot stripping at another time. And it was nearer to my home so saved on transport costs. Again from memory, the price I was charged was around the same as having it media blasted.

I decided on the process as I found underseal, filler and stuck down carpets hiding corrosion I and didn't want to spend a lot of time and money bringing the car back to what I wanted, to then make other unpleasant discoveries.

Never having had a car media blasted, I can only comment on what I have found so far with the process I used. For the vast majority of the car I think the process was brilliant. Frilly and perforated metal are easily identified and it has saved a huge amount of my time and effort removing underseal, paint etc., as well as saving all of the dust, mess and other costs associated with the process of removing it by hand/powertools.

The one downside is as Mpower said, the process doesn't seem to get properly into the box sections as I discovered last weekend, when I removed a previously very well disguised "repair". Personally I would prettty peed off to pay for the full SPL process if I found areas which were not protected. Having said that, I didn't and I now I know the limitation of the process my car went through, I can take steps to rectify the shortcomings.

Unfortunately to my mind there isn't an easy answer to which process is the better. Each seems to have their problems, whether it is coverage or cost and you need to weigh these up and your availablity to them with the additional time, effort, mess and fuel costs of a DIY strip.

Baz