# BLASTING OR DIPPING



## daddyfatsacs (Jun 9, 2005)

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF BLASTING A BODY OR DIPPING A BODY 
IVE GOT TO DO ONE OR THE OTHER TO MY 60 AND I NEED HELP DECIEDING
IF YOU DIPP HOW DO YOU GET PAINT ON THE INSIDE THE PANELS ?


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## daddyfatsacs (Jun 9, 2005)

MY BAD I THOUGHT I WAS UNDER PROJECT RIDES 
NEW QUESTION HOW DO I MOVE THIS TO PROJECT RIDES :biggrin:


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## Hang Time Mazda (May 7, 2002)

brent, i dont think there is anyone around here that dips cars, you would have to have it shipped somewhere for that. 

there is a guy down the street from the shop( next to our old shop) that does soda blasting. i dont think they even cover glass or trim. he says it doesnt hurt chrome or glass and it only eats the paint off. 

the name is charlotte soda blasting, i think. look him up and ask him about it, i got the number at the shop, if i can find it i will get it to you.


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## slo (Jan 12, 2004)

media blasting is good work fro the price and dipping is not cheap at all.

i know of some guys that do dipping to full candy paint for about 30k


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## OUTHOPU (Feb 24, 2006)

Dipping can cause problems down the road. It is not possible to completely neutralize the acid in the hard to reach areas like inside your rockers, between body seams,... If you can get it media blasted by a shop that knows what they are doing that is the best bet. Be advised though that media blasting can cause severe panel deformation if done improperly, with to rough of a media or high psi. Do your homework on any shop you plan on letting do the work for you. By the way soda blasting will not remove rust either.


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## slo (Jan 12, 2004)

yeah if they do a good job at media blasting chances are that speck of rust wont come back to haunt you for another 50+ years


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## 1229 (Sep 16, 2002)

acid dipping is only good for cars that are a complete basket case. if its a car that needs new rockers, quarter panel drop offs, along with all the other usual outside sheet metal, then dipping isnt a bad idea.

but if its a car that isnt completely rusted out, dipping is a bad choice because all of the acid will never be completely flushed out. small amounts of acidic residue can get trapped in the pinch welds, such as around the rocker panel pinch weld and the pinch weld where the outer quarter panel ties into the trunk floor drop offs. those seams are so tight that when the car is submersed in the vat they are obviously going to completely fill up with liquid but once the car is pulled out and pressure washed and dried some of the acid can remain in the very tight spots. by the time all the body work and paint is finished and the car is back together there is always a slight chance of the humidity causing some of that acid to "sweat" back out of the seams and will cause paint to lift, and considering a paint job alone can cost between 3-15 grand, acid dipping can come back to bite you in the ass, and I have personally seen it happen to someone.


but either way, there is a business in Burlington NC and Fountain Inn SC called Carolina ChemStrip and they dip complete car bodies, chassis, parts, etc. I have had inner wheel wells dipped there before and they do a great job, obviously parts like wheel wells dont have hidden seams that can hold back residue though.

Carolina Chem-Strip of NC 
333 MacArthur Lane, PO Box 4267 
Burlington, NC 27215 
(336) 584-5613 

Carolina Chem-Strip of SC
300 Hughes Street
Fountain Inn, SC 29644
(864) 862-7687

By the way, the Carolina Chem-Strip of NC in Burlington is in the same parking lot with a good powder coating business.

Advanced Powder Coating
403 MacArthur Ln
Burlington, NC 27217
(336) 524-0001
____________________________________________________________________


As far as media blasting, that is the ONLY way to go if you need to strip a decent classic car. you can have all the glass and chrome masked off and just have the outside stripped, or they can strip the inside, outside, bottom, etc. it depends on how much you want stripped. THERE ARE SOME PLACES THAT CAN COMPLETELY RUIN A CAR BODY, SO CHECK REFERENCES. I have had 2 cars stripped at a place in Greensboro NC called Ellis Media blast. I will NEVER take another car or part anywhere else for the remainder of the time that I still live in NC. Besides from being experienced enough not to warp the body, they also clean EVERY crevice and cavity completely out, so that when you get the car back there is very minimal plastic media left inside the car anywhere.

Ellis Plastic Media Blasting 336-855-1632 (Don Ellis)
1017 Tarrant Rd
Greensboro, NC 27409


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## Custom Jim (Jul 6, 2004)

Depending on how far you want to go with a project and how bad it is to start with, keep this in mind. Blasting is line of sight. What you can see can be cleaned with a media blasted at the surface. Dipping will get into area’s that you can and cannot see as it is an immersion process.
Whether it is blasting or dipping, the process must be done properly to keep from damaging parts of the car you want to save. Just like a person blasting could use too much pressure or be too close to a surface and damage it, a person dipping parts can leave it in some solutions too long or not properly neutralize the cleaner and that could cause problems too. 
I’ve done both blasting and dipping on parts of my 74 and from what I have learned I will take parts that I can easily see all of the surfaces like brake backing plates, control arms, mounting brackets, and such and have them blasted. For things that I cannot see all of the surfaces like doors, hoods, trunk lids, hatchlids, subframes, and such I will have dipped. Luckily I have access to both a balsting and dipping company. Some area's do not have one, both, or either. 
I had to be a newbie getting my first parts blasted and dipped but talking with the recommended guy to do some blasting I asked how well he could clean a fender he had in his shop with blasting and he explained the line of sight operation of a blaster. After talking with a recommended dipping guy I asked how can the parts be neutralized so that I would have good results and talking with him was informed that he leaves the part in the neutralizing tank twice as long as the cleaning tank.
Not that I have not had problems but on some tubes I had dipped the outside was clean but forgot the ends were pinched together and the cleaning solution got in fine but the neutralizing solution did not get inside as easily and a few days later I could see the cleaning solution oozing out the pinched end. The metal cleaner I use does have an aerator to move the solutions around in the tanks but these tubes of mine having the pinched ends would not allow them to be flushed and neutralized. Lesson learned.
On my parts that got blasted they came back raw and seemed to surface rust fairly quickly so these parts required a coat of epoxy primer to seal them up while parts I got from the dipping company had a metal prep on them and did not flash rust as quickly.
Since I sand blasted the underside of my car I still have sand now and then coming out of trapped area’s and hopefully it will all come out before the final paint is applied. On the dipped parts I saw the companies work and knew even though it was clean for the most part I got the pieces back and cleaned them even more before applying either epoxy primer or products from POR-15.

On parts I had dipped to cover the surfaces I couldn't reach with a spray gun or a brush I taped off openings and then poured in some of the POR-15 into the cavity and then by turning it all different directions it got coated. I then stood the part like the doors for example like how they would be on the car and allowed the excess to drain out and monitored the factory drain plugs so they didn't become clogged. Whatever POR15 got onto a surface that was going to get epoxy primed, I let it dry and then sanded it off.

Jim


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## Hoss805 (Mar 11, 2005)

> _Originally posted by TATTOO-76_@Mar 19 2007, 12:14 AM~7504970
> *acid dipping is only good for cars that are a complete basket case. if its a car that needs new rockers, quarter panel drop offs, along with all the other usual outside sheet metal, then dipping isnt a bad idea.
> 
> but if its a car that isnt completely rusted out, dipping is a bad choice because all of the acid will never be completely flushed out. small amounts of acidic residue can get trapped in the pinch welds, such as around the rocker panel pinch weld and the pinch weld where the outer quarter panel ties into the trunk floor drop offs. those seams are so tight that when the car is submersed in the vat they are obviously going to completely fill up with liquid but once the car is pulled out and pressure washed and dried some of the acid can remain in the very tight spots. by the time all the body work and paint is finished and the car is back together there is always a slight chance of the humidity causing some of that acid to "sweat" back out of the seams and will cause paint to lift, and considering a paint job alone can cost between 3-15 grand, acid dipping can come back to bite you in the ass, and I have personally seen it happen to someone.
> ...


 :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## daddyfatsacs (Jun 9, 2005)

thats a lot of reading there ,i think i going to stick with media blasting i know of that place in burlington guy i know use's them quite a bit its 1200 a car


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## 6Deuced (Mar 3, 2003)

> _Originally posted by OUTHOPU_@Mar 18 2007, 08:13 PM~7503372
> *Dipping can cause problems down the road. It is not possible to completely neutralize the acid in the hard to reach areas like inside your rockers, between body seams,...  If you can get it media blasted by a shop that knows what they are doing that is the best bet. Be advised though that media blasting can cause severe panel deformation if done improperly, with to rough of a media or high psi. Do your homework on any shop you plan on letting do the work for you. By the way soda blasting will not remove rust either.
> *


actually most warpage is caused by heat/friction which is usually because they are using to FINE of media


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## 1229 (Sep 16, 2002)

> _Originally posted by SEVENDUECE-REBIRTH_@Mar 19 2007, 10:01 PM~7509828
> *thats a lot of reading there ,i think i going to stick with media blasting  i know of that place in burlington guy i know use's them quite a bit its 1200 a car
> *


media blaster is in Greensboro. 


Ellis Plastic Media Blasting 336-855-1632 (Don Ellis)
1017 Tarrant Rd
Greensboro, NC 27409


by the way if you have some smaller parts that you want blasted WHILE YOU WAIT, I can do them for you. I have a commercial grade blasting cabinet with an interior volume of 48x28x26. So if you need bolts, steering box, suspension arms, linkages, engine parts, whatever will fit within the dimensions of my cabinet, I can do them for you while you wait, that way you dont have to worry about small parts getting lost.


And FYI, parts like body mount bushings turn out nicely with the media I use, and on cars like 71-76 Impala/Caprice which no one sells kits for the body bushings (although they are made) I can clean up the originals and in most cases what appears to be completely dry rotted is usually only dry rotted .020" deep (20 thousandths of an inch) after they are blasted all the rotted rubber is gone and the good/clean rubber is exposed and they look new again. So keep that in mind if you have some questionable body bushings, most of the time they can be cleaned and re-used.


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## STYLEZ_Y_SUP (Jan 10, 2006)

blasting a panel may warp cuz of the heat. dipping is good and gets all in the cracks also its cheap.


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## 1229 (Sep 16, 2002)

> _Originally posted by STYLEZ_Y_SUP_@Mar 20 2007, 10:46 PM~7517993
> *blasting a panel may warp cuz of the heat. dipping is good and gets all in the cracks also its cheap.
> *


warping is not a problem is the person doing the work knows what they are doing and uses the correct media.

using the larger plastic beads will not warp sheet metal. the edges of the beads are not very sharp and they do not create excess surface friction which produces no heat and little to no surface pressure. in most cases plastic media will not harm heavy duty masking tapes and duct tapes because its not sharp, but it will remove paint and rust.

the warping comes from non-qualified people who used sand, aluminum oxide and steel grit abrasive, because they all create alot of heat and surface pressure, plus its almost impossible to make off areas that dont need blasting because the edges are too sharp and will cut through most adhesive tapes like duct tape and even the most heavy duty masking tapes, even when applied in multiple layers.


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## pink63impala (Aug 5, 2004)

fat boy i can do all your small parts here at work,blasted that is, hasnt the 60 been blasted one time already?


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## PICAZZO (Mar 1, 2006)




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