[urq] Dipping vs Blasting

[Steve Eiche]

Ingo,
Now, now, I have at least two or three more years before I can sell my setup.  Heck, I might just leave them on the car.  I love the turning radius and look of those low profile 8" solid wheels that really make it look like it is moving even when it is standing still (as it has been for the last 7 years).

Joking aside, I would highly recommend the setup that I have over a rotisserie.  I used two CGT subframes, with 4 8" scaffolding casters spaced off of the subframes 8" or so with the appropriate sized pipe welded to the subframes.  The cost?  $120 for the casters, $10 for the pipe, and the two bend subframes were free from a salvage yard that went out of business six years ago (I straightened them so they would fit perfectly).  This gives me plenty of room to get under the car to work on it, it can easily be moved by one person, there is nothing extending from the front or back which would get in the way of working in the engine bay or trunk.  It supports the vehicle exactly as the suspension would, so you know that the body is loaded just as it will be when it is on the wheels.  This is nice when fitting doors, doing body work, etc.

As for how to strip it, I am happy with the way I did it.  Ideally, I would have had the car dipped, but I would only do that if I could also dip prime the car as the dipping process gets EVERYTHING off of the car EVERYHWERE, including the internal panels that would be impossible to spray.  This would just lead to rust through down the road.  I had the engine compartment, seams, rear vent opening, jams and under sides of the hood and deck lid blasted.  I would have blasted the entire car, but because of the heavy Imron (sp?) paint that had been put on in one of the previous paint jobs, it would have taken too long and cost too much to blast it off.  It was some nasty stuff.  I used aircraft stripper on the rest of the car.  That was really not a bad job.  I did not strip the interior or the underbody.  The underbody was/is in excellent shape, so there was no reason to remove the undercoat and risk doing more damage than good.  I just cleaned it very well and touched up the undercoat where necessary.  The one thing that I would have done differently is that I would have had all of the openings of the car masked when I had it blasted.  As it is, I still get media out of the nooks and cranies.  

Steve



Ingo wrote:

Marc,

Maybe you can get one second hand from Mr. Eiche (assuming he's gotten that
far yet.  ;-) 

Ingo

----- Original Message ----- 
Marc wrote:


>> Thanks to everyone for thier great replies!
>>
>> I think I have decided to do.....neither!  :) 
>>
>> I am hoping to buy a chassis rotisserie from
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http://www.accessiblesystems.com

>> and do a combination of chemical stripping (brush-on kind) and localized
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media

>> blasting. The rotisserie will be handy for removing the undercoating, and
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also

>> later in the project for doing brake lines, fuel lines, exhaust,
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suspension,

>> etc. and I can use it for my GTI and any other projects that come my way
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in

>> the future. Although it will probably take longer to do it myself, I think
>> that stripping the car this way will let me learn more about the condition
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of

>> the car first hand, as well as deal with problem areas in a more surgical
>> manner. Wish me luck!
>>
>>   - Marc
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