Stephen:
I had mine blasted with plastic beads. Worked great, no warpage,
and no issues after painting. I had removed the sound deadener and used
a putty knife to remove all the seam sealer, and then wiped the seams
down with paint thinner to get the rest off. Bead blasting will not
remove anything soft and/or sticky, and I wanted paint on everything. If
you don't remove the seam sealer and deadener, then the painter paints
right over it. The painter seam sealed it for me when he was done, and I
used dynamat to replace all the sound deadener. BTW, I used an angle
grinder with a twisted wire brush to remove the undercoating. Messy but
fast and effective. The painter said it was the cleanest tub he had ever
seen.
I had mine painted while disassembled, so that I would have
paint in all the fender seams. I felt this would deter rust. I
undercoated the panels individually using rubber truck bed liner, then
bolted them together using strip body putty in the seams. The drawback
to this approach is that sooner or later you will scratch something
during the fitting. I put a nasty scratch in my new paint at one point.
Fortunately, I asked for some touchup paint from the painter, and with
some patience and a little wet sanding the scratch disappeared. Still, I
had a heart attack when I scratched the paint. Not a good feeling.
If dipping will remove all the goo from the seams, it will save
you considerable labor and might be preferred. Does the dip remove
tar/undercoating and rust? I would worry about getting all the chemicals
out of the various welded seams. What sort of rinsing process do they
use?
Cheers,
Vance
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Stephen Halkett
Sent: June 13, 2006 6:47 PM
To: 6 Pack list
Subject: Dip or Strip?
Hi All,
(I did a search on the list for chemical / strip / dip etc..and did not
come up with a significant thread on this particular question - sorry if
I missed it...)
I think I am, just a few days away from taking my tub, fenders, panels
and chassis to the local (chemical) stripper but find myself conflicted
by differing viewpoints as my body guy has indicated he does not prefer
this method. Conversely, the stripper contact I have discussed this with
indicates that this is quite a reasonable use of the technology although
there are defiantly two camps when it comes to chemical vs. blasting. I
should point out the blaster contact has demonstrated a high degree of
competence and is doing low pressure soda blasting on some high dough
original type mopar units while the stripper seems to be doing more of
the hot-rod custom variety.... Generally, they seem to be priced the
same +- a couple of $hun.... so the dollars are not really a big part of
the decision equation.
(..fyi...I have also heat-gunned all the nasty black stuff off the tub)
So as is the case, I turn to the collective wisdom of the group for some
guidance...I would appreciate some advice / comments / or results of
your personal experiances in the short term or the long term.....dip or
strip?.
Thanks a bunch - Stephen
76 tr6 w/OD - 40,000miles but filthy.
Ontario / Canada
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