Paint stripping. - Dip stripping car body panels.

B

BBLongman

New Member
Hi,

Can anyone tell me if they have had car body panels chemically cleaned by dipping in caustic before? I seem to remember reading in a recent club magazine about someopne who'd had it done.

I've been cleaning smaller parts myself by boiling in a small tank of caustic and then dipping in phosphoric acid solution. This is much more effective than sand blasting as it gets in to the seams.

Can't heat a tank big enough for wings or doors though so any information or ideas would welcome.

Bennet

(If anyone has any doubts about the effectiveness of this process take a look at this brake caliper body!)
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Hello Suggest you look under Ultrasonic Cleaning contractors / services. I used Ultasonic Cleaning Services Ltd, Unit 4 Pepper Rd, Leeds , LS10 2EU Tel 0113 271 5807
Excellent service removes ALL rust, underseal, paint, sound deadening pads , plastic padding etc etc (AND plastic trim clips - so take em out first !) Panels come back as pure shiny steel (rusty bits look like lace !) cost when I had mine done was about £15.00 per wing / door / valance. Bonnet & boot would probably be a bit big and you will need to thoroughly strip all the innards out of the doors first if you have them done.
 
Thanks for the information. I've just called the firm in Leeds and they've quoted £200 to strip all four doors, all four wings and both the front and rear valences. Sounds pretty good to me!

Apparently the process they use is to heat the panels in an oven which turns the paint etc to an ash. The panels are then dipped into a tank of phosphoric acid which vibrated ultrasonicly to remove the ash and rust. They assure me the heat of the oven won't cause problems with distortion.

I think I'll try and get them over before Christmas and I'll report back on the results.
 
Thought I'd report back on the results of stripping the body panels. Certainly removed all the rust but left a horrible greasy residue that was a lot of hassle to remove.

see http://www.geocities.com/bblongman/Strippanels.htm

for details.

Malcolm what was your experience of painting the panels once they came back? Any ideas for painting inside the doors?

Bennet
 
Painting the inside of the doors posed a problem as the spray gun would only reach parts through the various apertures - in the end I purchased a long paint brush with an angled head from B&Q and used that with a cold galvanising paint. (I think the brush was intended for painting domestic window frames)
Once the doors came back stripped all traces of factory filler had gone and also the rust - leaving pits & holes - these were filled with an aluminium/resin filler and then the doors were sprayed with a two pack etch primer and followed by high build cellulose filler.
Top coat was rushed so will need to be re-done.
The oily coating on the doors came off with Panel Wipe.
 
Cheers Malcolm. I'll try the same thing with the brush. I see to remember using a special roller for radiators when decorating the house that'll probably do the trick. Apparrantly they often applly primer with a roller in body shops these days anyway, less waste.

Bennet
 
Sprayed the backs and inside of the doors today. Actually managed to get pretty good coverage by turning the pressure on the gun right up and misting into the door cavity through the top. This was with the door layed flat on a bench rather than on the car though. Any little areas missed can be reached with a brush. Used a paint called PA10 or Strathclyde primer! Designed for the shipbuilding industry it's a metal primer with bonding qualities but unlike normal etch primers isn't hydroscopic so can be left with out fear of rust breaking through. Only problem is it uses very volatile alchohol based thinners which means it can come out a bit on the thick side. I ended up with nearly 1:1 paint to thinners!! If anyone is interested in using it's sold by Macclesfield paints and is about £7 a litre.

How did you find the aluminuim body filler Malcolm? A few people have recommended it but i'm a bit worried about it being hard work to sand.
 
You can also get a cavity wax spray, which will help to stop the rust inside the doors. Better than waxoil as that tends to run out of the door bottoms the first time the sun comes out !!, I know I've got puddles of it on my drive !

Richard :)
 
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