Acid dipping

I would really like to send out some rust free body panels I have to get them acid dipped and E coated, but things like doors or other hollow panels I have heard can be a nightmare when its time to paint. Not to mention IF I ever do a full restoration I would like to get the entire car dipped. Has anybody had this done with good results? I just don't see a better way to clean inside doors, rockers, frame rails etc. Does anybody have any advise on how to do these things without dipping?

I do not think it is actually acid just chemicals that will remove all the sealer, rust and paint. I purchased a car that had been dipped. There are horror stories about cars that were dipped and never stopped rusting and have issues.

This car was done several years ago by Chem Strip I think is the company in Statesville, N.C. They have branches at other locations but I am told that that division has the proper tanks to dip and neutralize the chemicals after stripping.

I see no signs of any bleeding from the seams or weld joints. Once this car was stripped it was sprayed with epoxy primer. When I first got it I had to store outside for about 6 months with just a tarp on it and still no signs of any bleeding. I will be putting it on rotisserie this winter to start the rebuild.

I am not aware of anyone with the ability to dip prime or ecoat a body. There might be. One thing to remember when doing ecoat the tank has mostly water in it withe the paint suspended in it. The ecoat does not get inside like the hood or trunk reinforcement. It will still be bare metal. The process uses and electrical current to attract the paint to the metal but since the solution cannot flow freely inside the panels there will be no coating. You have to use something like Ziebart and drill holes or go through holes in the panel and coat inside. I think Eastwood makes some wands that you can to inside panels and coat with. I have seen Dynacorn NASA hoods that one of the forum members cut the center out to raise and modify and it was bare metal inside. That is why you should never wash our cars with a hose or pressure washer. You only feed the rust on the bare metal.

I just got my DIY big dip tank going. I got one of the 275 gallon bulk chemical tanks and got 20 gallons of molasses and mixed with 9 parts water so I have 200 gallons of de rust mixture and cost $50.00 for the tank and $90.00 for the feed grade molasses. I have a fender and trunk lid in it now and after about two weeks will take out and pressure wash and check it out. I have a second tank that I will be putting water and baking soda in to kill any of the acid from the molasses.

Since this is a first time for me doing panels with inner and outer skins I will be doing some experimenting.

I will put phosphate solution in the inner and outer and then POR to try and seal things up. Then epoxy primer.

The molasses does not take sealer or paint off unless there is rust under it. Have had great results in the past but have not done the assembled panels before.

Here are some pictures of my tank and the before pictures of the parts I put in. Just parts that were in the barn off 65 mustang to give it a try. I need a swimming pool so I can get the entire part in. That is a concern doing 1/2 of the part at a time. I could not find anything bigger at this time.

I am waiting for a bear to come and go swimming now, lol.

The parts have been in one week now.

I had many of my parts chemically dipped (doors included), but we decided not to dip the hood and trunk lid as there is no way to replace the factory sealer that you can see in various locations in between the upper and lower panels. It was the locations where this sealer was installed that we could not see we were concerned about... I had the body media and sand blasted (not the exterior...), everything turned out great.

That is the good thing about the molasses it does not take the sealer or paint off unless there is rust under it. I tried the evapo rust trying to get surface rust off the interior of my trunk on the 73 vert with no success at all. I could not submerge it obviously so I kept wet towels with it on the rust and covered with stretch wrap and it did nothing. It is expensive also. Molasses is slow but always works. They have big tanks overseas but have never found anyone here with tank big enough for a car using molasses.

Might be something for someone to get into.

Lol. I had no idea molasses could be used to strip rust!

As David says, Molasses is cheap and works really well, but it's slow as molasses and is sticky and messy. I am curious to see the results he gets.

I use Vaporust a lot and it works well and is fast when you can submerge the part completely in it. Evaporust is non-toxic (so they say) and does not have a chemical smell to it, and like Molasas will not remove paint or sealer. You can reuse it until it stops working. I put a rusty driveshaft in a PVC tube, filled it with Evaporust, and sealed it and left it for a few days. It came out rust free and it still had remnants of the paint marks on it. It worked great on my A/C clutch. I laid the compressor with the clutch attached face down is a pan, filled it with Evaporust just enough to cover the clutch for a day or two and that was it. Cleaned up my scissor jack too.

Well thank you. That is quite informative. I may have to try that molasses thing. But I think I may just have to leave it up to the restoration house for everything else. Thanks gents!

I think rackerm is using Evapo-Rust, just bought a 5 gal bucket myself to clean up some larger parts.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00370N1UG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am going to pull the parts out today and see what the progress is for the molasses. It is slow but very cheap my 200 gallons cost $88.00. I did some cast iron long sweep HO Pontiac exhaust manifolds for my friend that restores cars. Also did the parking brake and hood hinges. I keep stuff in there all the time. Have a 50 gallon for smaller parts also. Got to do some measuring and find a fish pond big enough to take the whole fender, trunk etc.

You might try an agricultural supply place for livestock watering tanks, I believe they'll be cheaper than a pond from Home Depot.

The molasses is doing it's thing. Looks like this was a replacement panel. The did not sand the panel before paint and the paint is coming off the inner. I did not use anything but water hose to wrinse the parts off. They went back to the tank. Some B4 and after 8 days in.

Looks like a great way to get rid of rust. I've sold over 100 of these tanks to a local mining company so surely they will have some empty ones lying around.

Might just give it a try but not sure of the price of molasses in my neck of the woods.

Looks like a great way to get rid of rust. I've sold over 100 of these tanks to a local mining company so surely they will have some empty ones lying around.

Might just give it a try but not sure of the price of molasses in my neck of the woods.

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Go to your local feed store, feed grade molasses. They use molasses to mix with food for cattle and horses. What I get comes out of Florida. Order on Thursday here at store on Monday, $22.00 for 5 gallons. Will add a couple pictures I took the trunk out yesterday and rinsed off with hose and it is almost done in 8 days.

First three pics made before put in tank. Last three after 8 days. You can see the line on the trunk lid where the rust is gone and the rusty part was outside the molasses. Two weeks usually will clean about anything. This trunk was a Ford red oxide replacement and the shop that put it on obviously did not sand the back side and paint is coming off easy. When I take out final time I will pressure wash and should all come off.