The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop To Dip or Not to Dip..

My 54 has about three coats of paint. The first was black, then ugly blue metal flake, then sloppy black again. The last black is at least shiny, but has lots of runs...real amature stuff. I also have found bondo in a few spots on fenders, etc. I'm in no real hurry to tear into the body work now since I'm still on mechanical stuff. But when I'm ready I'll be ready. So is it quicker and cheaper to grind it off myself or to have the fenders and bed dip-stripped? What would a shop charge to dip a fender?

Bruce, I had my 37 Chevy pickup cab, doors, inner door panels and grill shell/surround dipped and epoxy primed in Oct 2003. The total cost, including epoxy priming was $1230.00. I had my fenders blasted several months prior to that and I am much happier with the chemical dipping. Everything came back clean and no sand residue. My doors were $70.00 each for dipping and I think the fenders would have been $75.00 each. I used Nor-Cal stripping in Northern California as it is only 3 hrs from my house. Hope this helps. Charles

I guess my prioir experience with sandblasting was that there waqs still a good amount of prep to get the parts smmothed and ready for paint. Does the chemical dip speed up the paint pre process??

I do not like chemical dip for sheetmetal with seams or foldovers. The chemical is very difficult to flush out, and it often weeps up to years later. For sheetmetal that has no folds it works fine.

I have heard the same thing as Brian. I was also told that some shops will put the parts in a oven at I think around 140 deg. for 24 hours to eliminate this problem. I have had many flat panel parts dipped and found it to do a wonderful job. The trick is to have it phosphate dipped after stipping and then primmed as soon as possible. The problem is with leaving the phosphate to long is it is like it crysalizes and makes the metal rough. I have taken some of my panels to be dipped the other day and have started to sand the cab and doors down to bare metal (boy do I hate sanding) I have been lucky to know the owners of the shop and will be scuffing the parts with 120 grit and painting the panels with epoxy primer as soon as it comes out of the tanks eliminating the cost of the phosphate prosses. Hope this helps you in your decission