Almost have my 68 RS Coupe down to the bare shell. I recently bought it off a guy who had started the resto and quit. He had all the floors , quarters etc. replaced but there is still a fair amount of surface rust in the nooks and cranny's so to speak. This is bugging me to the point where i'm seriously thinking of the acid bath routine. Can anyone with experience with this procedure give me some advice?

Andrew, is that you?(Just funnin with ya, I like the 'Diceman', but then what guy doesnt)

Back to cars, If you acid dip your shell, it HAS to take another dip in a epoxy bath of some sort, other wise all the nooks and crannies and seams are going to rust and blow out on you down the road. A little food for thought.

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67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.

I dipped mine about 7 years ago. I think Ragtopman is correct, however, mine had been sitting outside for 5 years on the West coast and was already rusty in the nooks and crannies. It came out of the tank all nice and clean.

I squirted an etching primer into every space I could and even poured some into a few places and rolled the body shell around to spread it. This worked out fine for me but I also live in Colorado where there is no humidity so I haven't had any problems.

If your car is not rusty inside then I'd probably recommend some other form of stripping. However, if you can get it dipped in epoxy as suggested that may be a great alternative.

One other word about dipping - you tend to discover all the cars' secrets at once! When it comes out of the tank all bare metal the sins all show instantly where they appear gradually if you're sanding or using a chemical stripper. I walked into the shop and found out that the only good panel on my car was the roof!

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

I am also planning on having my 69 "SS" dipped. As far as I'm concerned this is the way to go. I've dipped my 66 Chevelle supersport and never had a problem. Yoou must make sure you get paint (I use rustoleum)in all the seams.
make sure you remove all non metal parts or they will be destroyed, this includes vin and cowl tags. if you search the net you'll find companies that sell replacement rivets for both tags.

The company I talked to apparently zinc phosphates it as there final stage. Thanks for all the reply's!

My 69 Z/28 came back from Redi-Strip about 2 months ago. RockyMtnRacer is 100% right about dipping exposing all the cars secrets. Places that I thought had minimal rust ended up being a lot worse. I don't regret the process though, I think it is the way to go if you want to preserve the car. The only parts that have surface rusted since the dip are parts that I've touched. I guess the salts or whatever on our skin will cause flash rusting.

-Marc

If you dip your car and it comes back with bare metal (as opposed to phosphate or other primer type coating) you should really get some primer on it ASAP. I washed mine down with metal prep and hot water so it would evaporate quickly - I ran a hose from the house water heater and cranked the heater to the max. I used a little compressed air on any areas that didn't dry right away. Then I immediately primed it with a couple of coats of top quality primer. The metal prep is a good idea because there may be slight residues from the rinse tank and from hands that touch it to move it plus miscellaneous airborne junk - besides, it makes the primer stick even better. Once you get it primed then you can touch it or get it a little wet without worrying.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

[This message has been edited by RockyMtnRacer (edited 08-25-2000).]

Ok so i'm having trouble deciding how to get my shell to Redi-strip. It's in my garage on jackstands. Any suggestions?

I rented a flatbed trailer and piled all the parts on it. The shop charged me one rate for the car and said I could throw in all kinds of stuff - so I tossed in the headers, crossmember, all the front suspension and subframe parts, etc. It's a good way to get a lot of parts stripped - just make a list of what you give them and make sure you get it all back.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)