Re: acid dipping service in Fort Worth-Arlington-Dallas

Posted by BH On 2008/1/15 13:33:02

Hank -

Saw the pix of your car as it is being disassembled (in your project blog), and it looks like a great project car - one with just surface rust, not the dreaded tin-worm.

However, I recommend AGAINST acid dipping because that removes good metal as well as rust.

Decades ago, there was a franchise called RediStrip, which promoted a non-destructive process. I beleive it was a combination of an alkali bath, but with an electrical current applied to "de-plate" the rust, leaving the good metal behind. There might not be a RediStrip franchisee near you these days, but I bet there is still some sort of service like that in the DFW area. Have you checked listings in Hemmings Motor News?

Otherwise, I've seen a rust-removing pad, similar to Scotchbrite, that was designed for larger angle sander/polishers that will wipe away the rust. However, that won't get into all the little nooks and crannies; you would have to use some sort of rust encapsulating product for those areas.

One of my Pats has a lot of surface rust on the roof, and I'm gonna try a brand of naval jelly that I found at Lowe's - looks better than the old goo that came in a pink bottle. I also saw some rust removing chemicals (Cap'n Lees?) demo'd at a swap meet that seemed to work well. After getting the worst of it, I'll go over the panel with the aforementioned rust-removing pad and sander (if needed).

Just my $0.02 worth.