The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop To chemically dip or not...

I have heard conflicting reports on whether to chemically dip my body parts or not. I spoke to my bodyman and he indicated that bodywork is like a chain, it will always fail at the weakest link and if you have old paint and bondo on it, that is most likely the weakest link. I spoke to a sand blast company and I don;t know if I was being fed a line of BS or not but was told that if I chemically dip my body parts, the metal will be ruined and after painting, the chemicals will seep out of the seams and ruin the paint. Who here has experience with this paint stripping process? What do you think?

H.T.,
Openin a can a worms on this post ...lol
Lotts LOVE THE CHEM STRIP PROCESS..while others say it aint the best way ..so you will prob. hear some Pros & Cons for sure.
Around my place there isnt a Chem strip place that is is anywhere close enough to justify the cost of haulin the parts..so I went with a my local Monument place an they did one heck of a job blastin on my sheetmetal (now they have a blaster with YRS. of exp. that does Auto parts).
Folks pay an dip there parts an cabs daily ..so I would think that there cannot be that much VOODOO in the process ..or there wouldnt be dippers in buisiness?
From what I have seen the Chem strip process does a FINE job.
If there woulda been a place close and cost effective I would have givin a try.
It is onna them things you have to decide on ..Chem strip will leave your sheetmetal "AS IS"..while blastin with the wrong or poorly trained will result in catastrophic warpin of things especialy like your hood.
So do your Homework an check out any blaster you may consider.
Just my 2 penny's.
Tim

you will get the best job if the whole thing is taken down to clean bare metal, and a bodyman can minimize filler with good metal bumping when it's clean and bare

I've had parts redi-stripped - doesn't 'ruin' the metal, it cleans it 100% ... it can however leave residues in hidden joints like the pinch welds, so it has to be rinsed properly, and phosphating afterwards is advised .... I'd use chem stripping on some things, sandblasting on others, complete cabs is where the biggest problems can occur

OTOH, sandblasting leaves sand in those same hidden places, and some folks have had to deal with it vibrating out of joints for years, need to be careful about sandblasting inside cabs

Bill