Automotive chemical dip; a good idea for my car?

A. Chemical stripping of old paint and rust is a great way to prepare a car body. It can get into inside corners and panels where scraping and blasting cannot. Talk to a shop which does this work about your other questions. It's not a cheap process, but it is a good one. I have a question. Why would anyone want to restore a 66 Bonneville?

 Close, but the '64 GTO is actually THE dream car, Curtis. I was 17 then. A Corvette or XKE was beyond dreaming about for anybody in my town. Then Pontiac takes their famed 389, puts tri-power carbs and a Hurst 4-speed floor shift on it, and stuffs it into an inexpensive light-weight compact car you could buy at any dealer.

It was a bolt out of the blue with no competition -- the birth of the muscle car.

Not that I could get my parents to buy one; but it sure made me jealous that other kids had them.

A. Great to see another beautiful Pontiac being restored.

If you don't want to use Toxic or harmful treatments to get the rust off your car, try Electrolytic rust removal. The main ingredient is, common household washing soda ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , mixed with water, and a suitable bath to put your parts into, then you need a battery charger ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , or an Arc welder which puts out DC current. Here's an excerpt from one of many sites out there which deal with just such a setup:

Easy way to clean rust and grease, and, in some cases, paint, from your rusty cast iron and sheet metal parts. Taking advantage of common household cleaning products, items many of us have laying around the garage, kitchen or laundry room, and some science, you can clean parts from a single bolt up to an entire trailer frame through a process known as "electrolysis".

What you need:
A non-conducting container - a large plastic bucket works really well. battery charger ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] - big is better, however even one able to produce 6 to 10 amps should do. A student recently used my site as the basis for a school project and used a computer power supply in place of battery charger. Sacrificial electrodes. Concrete reinforcing rod works well (rebar) cut into lengths about 4" taller than your bucket or container (Do not use stainless steel! The results are a health hazard and illegal). Laundry soda, also called washing soda ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . Wire and/or cables for connecting electrodes together. Water. Small lengths of small chain (used to suspend the rusty parts in solution) or some other means to suspend the part to clean into the solution.

A. See US Patent 6294072, which covers electrolytic de-rusting/de-scaling both with and without an impressed electric current.

A. Hello Curtis- and fellow enthusiasts- I have talked with an auto paint and body shop, tech. re: rust removal.. they have used "rust-away".. a pre-diluted..acid based product, which needs to soak thru paper towels..and covered with sheet plastic for 30 -to 45 min. then removed with pref. a power washer -and mild soap..after the surface dries- you would need to wipe or spray a Self-etching primer ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , such as Dupont's aerosol can formula to keep that rust from just starting over.. don't attempt to sandblast that rust. or the body panels will be destroyed- or at best warped beyond repair..

Good luck,

A. Hello,

I own and operate a dipping shop in Oregon. I have read the responses to the question regarding the dipping. Yes, It can be somewhat costly but the results are amazing. The amount of time it saves alone will cover the cost of dipping the parts. Something to remember is the parts and completely submerged. That means it gets most everything clean. When blasting it will only remove what you can point the gun at. Then the parts will rust right away if not
primed.

Many times we will remove parts from the hot tank (caustic,paint removal stage) and pressure wash them to find they look fine. The part, lets say a fender, then goes into the acid tank (phosphoric,derusting stage) and when removed we will see small holes where the metal was thinned by rusting from the backside. Most fenders have a supporting brace. This Brace does a great job at collecting dirt which can contain moisture which then causes rust. In a car body areas such as rocker panels collect the same dirt and the rust is again a problem that could come back. When these parts get dipping in the hot tank and then washed it is amazing to see how much foreign debris such as dirt, sand, french fries, etc.. gets washed out.

A question that get asked a lot about our process is "how do you get chemicals out of the seams" or "Will it bleed back out later after the car is painted". The answer is no!
This process, when done correctly, will not come back. The first stage in our process is paint removal with hot caustic soda ⇦liquid caustic soda in bulk on Amazon [affil link] . This is what removes paint or could cause a problem later. It is an alkaline solution at the high end of the pH scale. When the parts are removed from there they are carefully pressure washed. Then the parts are placed in the acid tank for rust removal. The acid tank is at the bottom end on the pH scale. This is where the parts become neutralized from the paint removal process. Then the parts again get pressure washed then coated with a rust inhibitor.

Lots of people use Ospho [adv: Ospho on eBay or Amazon [affil links] (rust killer) in their cars for killing rust. Ospho is strong Phosphoric acid. If anyone was to have a problem with acid coming out of seams and removing paint it would be those people because of the concentration. I've never heard of that being a problem.

Anyhow, I hope this may answer some questions about dipping. My family and employees are hot rodders and we really enjoy what we do. We get to see some very unique cars and parts go through our shop. Thanks,