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Forwarded message:
Subj: Re: Re: Body Stripping
Date: 98-02-08 05:38:13 EST
From: PirouetteT
To: MWood24020
Mike,
You didn't call, and if everyone who had advised you had agreed with
me, I'd leave it at that. But I don't understand how people can urge you to
dip the car in relation to media (bead) blasting it. Doing it by hand is out
of the question unless you are a masochist (I just finished, so this is not a
second hand evaluation -- besides, if you plan to strip the bottom, you'll
have plenty of that to do anyway).
Let's go past the "will it leak out of the seams where it's been
hiding and put real stripes on my Tiger when I wash $3-4000 worth of new
paint" question. You'll get as much consensus on that as one does on the
political questions bandied about on this list (although it's in the end
their advice and your money).
Quite simply, a competent and thorough blasting will get to all and
ONLY all of the places that your painter can get to too. There may not be
that many pieces with paint side in, but there are some. When I got my #1
car back from the dip, it was fairly easy to take the surface rust off of
'clean' metal. Anything that had already had the surface broken even
slightly by corrosion took off like a shot -- very hard to catch /keep up
with. And I live in Nevada (read very dry air, which you don't have). The
proponents of dipping who say that thorough rinsing will get all of the
'stuff' out of the cracks may be right, but then you've subjected the whole
exterior (and those same slow-drying cracks and seams) to alot of water. And
the insides of your frame rails and various box sections that are untouched
by blasting are stripped and NOT rinsed in a dip.
Or let's put it this way: as the car stands now, would you jam a
hard running hose into the bolt hole (front of frame rail), or some crevice
in the A or B post or into the rockers (let's be real, all of the above!),
then pull it out, let it drain by itself, walk away and think you'd improved
the car's longevity?
Short of that, dipping provides NO advantage to stripping the parts
you can see and there is that nagging question of residual caustic leak.
And money? I acid dipped my car north of S.F. in Windsor. That was
at least 6+ years ago, probably more. $600 -- tub and hood, no doors, trunk,
or small parts. And I had to TOTALLY take the hard stuff (underside) off
myself to get that price. Redi-strip wanted, I think $1200-1600, depending
on parts, and again, that excluded the extra if they stripped the bottom.
And unless things have changed, the closest Redi strip is down east of L.A.
They would not guarantee me two day service, nor even make it seem possible.
So count two trips on your own time, plus the expense of trailering, even if
you have your own truck and trailer.
And both of the above are DATED in terms of charges! Some inflation
and LOTS of EPA mandates since then!! I haven't priced a full car blast here
in about two years but I got a second hand quote (from a quality restorer who
used and recommended whom he spoke of) of $600 then. And I've gotten prices
at Hot August Nights from several people in the South Bay within the same
time frame for $1000 or less.
I couldn't speak more highly of Paul, the guy who runs (Nor-Cal?) in
Windsor. I assume they're still there, and they really went the extra mile
for me. But after working on that car for a number of years, I stood in the
blast room next to Lannie Hunton's stripped car with no blooming surface rust
and thought 'Wow!'
Good luck, whatever you decide!
Chris
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