Hi Ron,
I read your question and later briefing of comments from others. I too have
a TR3A, mine's a '58 TS35306L. I had the same question as you about dipping.
I feel that if the car is clean with a little surface rust, then dipping is
not the way to go, since you will be removing painted surfaces in some vital
areas such as boxed in sections and seams, that would be hard to get paint to
later. My car had sat outdoors (this was kind of a rescue mission) and had a
lot of surface rust everywhere and I knew that the floors and sills were
going to have to be replaced so I wasn't worried about those boxed sections
as much. Needless to say, I had mine dipped at Redi-Strip in Indianapolis
and was very happy with the results. I brought it home and washed the
surface then gave it a good coat of PPG DP50 epoxy primer. Although there
are some other boxed sections such as in the engine bay area, that I'm still
not sure what do do with.
With the frame? I'd go with sandblasting hands down, there's no thin gauge
metal to worry about warpage and sandblasting leaves an excellent paintable
clean surface and is usually cheap by comparison. Plus if you dip the frame,
you've got inside that has been stripped to worry about. Bead blasting is ok
for thin gauge but it doesn't seem to get all of the rust.
Scott Helms
TRMGAFUN@AOL.COM
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