Dipping panels

[Fergus]

I'm just in the 'oh my god' phase of restoring a 1972 VW Beetle, insomuch that as I dig under the paint I'm finding 38 years worth of fixes and bodges. Some of them are well executed, but sadly some are somewhat less excellent.

Having spent a day hacking through the filler on one badly repaired door with another one to go and a full set of wings awaiting the same treatment the thought of having them dipped so I can see what I've got to work with.

Does anyone know if there is a suitable firm in Devon that can do this? I've done the google thing and just get pages of furniture dippers which I understand is a different process (happy to be told otherwise though).

Cheers

Rich

 

[Engineer]

Have a look at what involved underneath before you start getting worried about panels which can easily be replaced. Many VW Beetles are death traps, with hard to repair areas being bodged with materials such as newspaper, body filler, and fibreglass.

If its very bad the only way to do the job properly is to remove the body, which will mean considerable expense and an awful lot of aggravation, so get it up on stands or better see if its possible to have a good look with it on a ramp, and try to assess the repairs needed before actually spending any money on it.

 

[Fergus]

The body is already off, the chassis had new pans before I got it but the framehead needs a new cross member and bottom plate. We've found that we can lift the body reasonably comfortably between two of us though when it comes to re-joining the two halves for the last time I'll suspend it from my engine crane so I can fiddle at leisure with the sealing strip and buffers. The body has already had heater channels fitted which is just as well as being a 1303 everything is more expensive.

I've got my boys down at the moment (this is going to be the first car for the eldest) so we're all working on different parts at the same time and today was my turn on the stuff that unbolts. The way I work when doing up a car is to fix, recondition etc everything as I take it off so I've currently got a loft full of cleaned and powdercoated parts ready to go back on when the enthusiasm for rust fixing has waned.

I've found today that Nitromors has changed it's formulation to something twice as expensive and half as effective, there's only so many times I want to throw £33 at two litres of stuff that doesn't work very well.

I must admit it's incredible what can be hidden under a smear of filler and even more so if the filler is covered in stone chip. Thankfully so far the welding has been reasonable and is still sound, I've found one or two glass fibre repairs in non structural areas and they have been removed in preparation for new metal being let in. The car has been off the road for 20+ years and has been a project for several different people, hence the variety of repair methods and standards.

 

[rtbcomp]

The old Nitromors was based on Methylene Chloride, which you can buy for around £3.50 per litre.

You have to immerse items to be stripped and keep it covered with a layer of water because it is very volatile.

 

[Fergus]

The old Nitromors was based on Methylene Chloride, which you can buy for around £3.50 per litre.

You have to immerse items to be stripped and keep it covered with a layer of water because it is very volatile.

That's interesting, any suggested suppliers?

I'm guessing though that what I'm looking for is a commercial operation that would be able to do this for me, my better half is very understanding but I suspect filling the bath with enough volatile paint stripper to dip a wing might just be pushing my luck a tad.

 

[rtbcomp]

.......... I suspect filling the bath with enough volatile paint stripper to dip a wing might just be pushing my luck a tad.

Especially if you have a plastic bath.

Have a look in the Links section under "strippers"

I get mine from http://www.eurochem-northern.com/ but I doubt they will deliver down south.

Do A Google, that might throw something up.

 

[steveo3002]

or call around and see if you can get them blasted , that way it removes the frilly rusty bits too

 

[rtbcomp]

If you do get them blasted make sure the blaster realises the implications of blasting thin panels, too much pressure and they will distort due to heat.

 

[Engineer]

Good to hear you are doing the work properly..............an awful lot of "experts" bodge these cars up, and charge customers an awful lot of money for this work!

You might find someone with a chemical dip tank in your area prepared to try to strip those parts, but I think you would need to have luck on your side.

These people are Somerset not Devon, but blast cleaning is probably a better idea than dipping anyway: http://www.sw-sodablast.co.uk/

 

[rtbcomp]

I dip items before blasting, even if it doesn't remove all the paint it softens it. This means I save media, time and electricity.

Blasting gives a good surface for paint to adhere to and gets rid of residue from the dipping process.

 

[Fergus]

Ideal, thank you. I've emailed the blasting company for a quote.

Rich