Dave,
I suspect you will get the pros and cons from both camps on this- dipping vs
blasting. I can only share what I did with my own BN7. I chose to have the
frame/chassis sand blasted and the blaster did self etching primer. I was
just not comfortable with having that acid eating away in the unseen areas
as well as inside the frame. The amount of residual sand encountered later
was insignificant. A good point which someone else made is "if it is
rotten, it is rotten" and acid or blasting will leave holes. It is a bit of
a crap shoot.
As for the inside of the main rails (I also had to replace both inner sills)
I had the front of each off as they were beat up and needed to remake their
fronts. While off I made a heavy duty scraping tool out of a garage door
opener spring shaft and thoroughly scraped inside the main rails all the way
bach to the trunk area. I flushed well with water, tilted the frame to dry,
and made a Waxoyl spray thingie out of a pump sprayer nozzle. Sprayed
insides of both liberally all the way back.
I myself sandblasted all the steel body parts usiing around 50 psi. I was
careful on the heat build up. The shrouds I striped with chemical striper.
Am quite please with how things turned out. I doubt it will make any real
difference which direction you choose. We have to reallize that these cars
will not be subjected to the use/abuse/elements which they experienced in
their previous lives. With the limited driving that they typically get and
given our ages, the cars will likely be listed in our wills!
My .02
Keith Pennell
|