And I swore I'd never touch acid again....

So for shell number one were working on which was awaiting a lesson in chemistry it would not soon forget (a la LN deathray) I got to poking around and found some rust in places I didn't like. So now despite all common sense I'm gonna give it a nice submersion in a giant vat of acid. Anyone have any experience with this. Interior is already stripped of all sound deadening but still has lots o seam sealer and undercoating on it. will dipping it get rid of ALL of it or should I do some further prep before it goes? And yeah yeah it will accelerate the rusting of the shell but likely not before it's wrapped around a tree. Feel free to make comments, suggestions or personal attacks. All are welcome. Oh yah it's another subaru. 95 4 door.

Boring photo montage to follow....

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Gone fishing

When I worked in the classic car restoration shop, we got all the cars sandblasted instead of acid dipping. The acid will stay in various crevices and cracks and such and wont be any fun.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Where did you find the rust?

Was it the seam under the c-pillar? Inside the rear arches?

Here?

Inside arch:


Viewed from between the trunk and the rear quarter:


Inside passenger compartment:




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2009 06:48AM by Daniel Buehler.

WTF? How do you get rust like that on a car so new? Oh yeah, they spray the roads with sulphuric acid or something over there, don't they?

Doivi Clarkinen Wrote:
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> WTF? How do you get rust like that on a car so
> new? Oh yeah, they spray the roads with sulphuric
> acid or something over there, don't they?

Nah, they actually use this highly complicated, economy boosting, supper chemical developed by the super top-secret laboratories, shared by the "Big Three". They call the chemical "SALT".

Judging by the sheer qualtities dumped on the roads everytime we get a dusting of snow, I'd say that the local government is sponsored by the SALT manufacturers.

We looked at acid-dipping for the new RX7 shell, but decided against it - I went at the floor tar manually - put the shell on a rotis. and sand-blasted the shit out of it. It worked really well - even getting the soft gunk off the bottom when I was sure the material would just embed itself. The process uncovered more rust (on my Alberta 'rust-free' shell) - which I welded patches for - then sealed the whole thing.

Peter has dipped a couple of cars in the past at the place in Brampton - my understanding is they dip it, wash it then oil it. But then you've got to get the oil washed off to seal it - and this is where the rust unavoidably comes into play - especially this time of year. Might be better to do it during a dry week in the summer or fall?

Robin

I just used a crimped wire / cupped wheel on an angle grinder. Worked great and didn't hurt the metal. I was able to get the goop off and keep most of the e-coat/primer on the metal.

But... It took about 20 hours to do the shell.

I don't think Acid dipping is reasonable in the climate we have here...

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Chris

Daniel Buehler Wrote:
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> Where did you find the rust?
>
> Was it the seam under the c-pillar? Inside the
> rear arches?
>


Yep and yep. They all rust there. The rest of the shell is really clean.

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Gone fishing

Here's what it looked like after using a wire wheel:

Daniel Buehler Wrote:
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> Here's what it looked like after using a wire
> wheel:

Wow! I can't believe how much rust there is on the floorpan. Of course it's basically 15 years old now....

Still, you'd think by now they'd have figured out how to slow the spread of that stuff!

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Opel is a 4-letter word...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10498579@N07/sets/

It looked pretty good before I dug into it...

And, it looks pretty good now.

double you tee efff! That sucks man. I say blast it to get rid of the rust, por 15 the the big open for the LIGHT rust, and then any serious shit if you want to stop it, you need to cut it out and replace it.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

Scrap it....come out here and buy a nice old Impreza. Less than $1000 you can drive one back home with no rust to mess with.