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Rust repair after acid dip


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Recently had my car dipped to remove old paint, undercoat, and uncover/neutralize any rust. Overall it came out pretty good, not too many surprises. A couple places will need to be patched as there are small holes. My question however is about the pitted areas. There is quite a bit of surface area on the floors and spare wheel well that has pitted but not eaten through. Do I need to cut all that out or is it ok to epoxy over now that the rust should theoretically be gone? A couple pics below. 

 

 

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Where did you have it dipped? 

 

I think its a big subjective as to how pitted requires replacement. I use a little awl, scribe, pokey bit, and if you can poke through the metal, it requires replacement. When replacing, I would take wide margins, or just do full pans. It is way more work to do multiple small patches than one big one. Looks like your car has already been stitch welded though, that would have to be considered, I imagine that makes replacing a floor more complicated. 

 

Looks great overall, keep us updated on your progress. 

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8 minutes ago, LLave said:

Where did you have it dipped? 

 

I think its a big subjective as to how pitted requires replacement. I use a little awl, scribe, pokey bit, and if you can poke through the metal, it requires replacement. When replacing, I would take wide margins, or just do full pans. It is way more work to do multiple small patches than one big one. Looks like your car has already been stitch welded though, that would have to be considered, I imagine that makes replacing a floor more complicated. 

 

Looks great overall, keep us updated on your progress. 

 

Thank you for the advice, that makes sense to me. I believe the pans are worth saving, they're mostly solid but I'll poke around a bit more. It was dipped by Metalworks in Eugene, OR. 

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1 hour ago, artishard116 said:

 

Thank you for the advice, that makes sense to me. I believe the pans are worth saving, they're mostly solid but I'll poke around a bit more. It was dipped by Metalworks in Eugene, OR. 

 Are you planning on having it epoxy dipped or having it sprayed? 

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http://powder-fab.com/e-coating/

 

It's the process that OEMs use on their bare metal. It's the familiar black finish that unpainted replacement panels come with. I believe that place has tanks large enough for an S30 shell, but I can't find their max size specs right now. I thought they had them listed before.

 

There are a ton of shops that do cars in the Midwest, but that's the only one I've found on the West Coast that isn't a super vague industrial website. 

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2 minutes ago, calZ said:

http://powder-fab.com/e-coating/

 

It's the process that OEMs use on their bare metal. It's the familiar black finish that unpainted replacement panels come with. I believe that place has tanks large enough for an S30 shell, but I can't find their max size specs right now. I thought they had them listed before.

 

There are a ton of shops that do cars in the Midwest, but that's the only one I've found on the West Coast that isn't a super vague industrial website. 

 

Interesting, I thought e-coat and epoxy were different things. I did look around a little for primer dip solutions but couldn't find any. At this point after shipping the car from California, it's all getting pretty expensive. I think I've found a reputable place to spray epoxy and then I'll likely drill access holes and shoot something into the interior spaces. 

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2 minutes ago, artishard116 said:

 

Interesting, I thought e-coat and epoxy were different things. I did look around a little for primer dip solutions but couldn't find any. At this point after shipping the car from California, it's all getting pretty expensive. I think I've found a reputable place to spray epoxy and then I'll likely drill access holes and shoot something into the interior spaces. 

 

I thought so too, but on the description they call it paint and say it leaves a "uniform 1mil thick epoxy finish".

 

Ah, I thought you were in the PNW since you used Metalworks. Taking it back up would be a pain.

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1 minute ago, calZ said:

 

I thought so too, but on the description they call it paint and say it leaves a "uniform 1mil thick epoxy finish".

 

Ah, I thought you were in the PNW since you used Metalworks. Taking it back up would be a pain.

 

Man this car has been all over the place. Was originally sold in California and then shipped to Florida by the previous owner, where I bought it and shipped it back haha. 

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I had my 72 dipped a few years back,  you are working against time now that the metal is unprotected, the place that did mine sprayed the shell down with a water based rust inhibitor that was good for about 10 days. Something like this for inside the subframe, https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html

Personally, I cut out those pitted ares and weld in new metal, but somewhere like the spare tire well I would just seal it well.

Before you spray the epoxy make sure the metal is really clean, I use a lye based cleaner like Purple Power, then Methyl Hydrate, then wax and grease remover.

 

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10 hours ago, grannyknot said:

I had my 72 dipped a few years back,  you are working against time now that the metal is unprotected, the place that did mine sprayed the shell down with a water based rust inhibitor that was good for about 10 days. Something like this for inside the subframe, https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html

Personally, I cut out those pitted ares and weld in new metal, but somewhere like the spare tire well I would just seal it well.

Before you spray the epoxy make sure the metal is really clean, I use a lye based cleaner like Purple Power, then Methyl Hydrate, then wax and grease remover.

 

Thank you sir. This place also sprayed an inhibitor. The metalworks guys personally went over the prep process with the shop doing the primer so should hopefully go smoothly. 

 

On a slightly unrelated note, this one has me stumped. The shop sent me images of the areas they found needing attention and one of them is this area where the A-pillar meets the roof. They said it looks to be failing but not due to rust. Anyone ever encounter this? What would cause such a thing?

 

 

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2 minutes ago, rturbo 930 said:

Yes, at the top and bottom of the A pillar, and also at the joint in the back. 

 

Interesting, I learned something new today thanks. It doesn't look like as clean of a seam as in the back, more like random cracks. Any thoughts on how to repair/strengthen them?

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8 minutes ago, artishard116 said:

 

Interesting, I learned something new today thanks. It doesn't look like as clean of a seam as in the back, more like random cracks. Any thoughts on how to repair/strengthen them?

My 260Z has lead there as well but mine was in good shape after media blasting so we just went over it with DP epoxy primer.  My understanding is that once the lead starts to fail you need to remove it, melt it out, and either replace it with new lead or filler.

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11 hours ago, artishard116 said:

Anyone ever encounter this? What would cause such a thing?

That looks like water got to the lead and it has oxidized, you can scrape away all the crumbly stuff until you get down to fresh lead then seal with epoxy when you do the rest of the car,  filler will be needed to smooth out the lines.

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  • 8 months later...

Hi all,

Been stripping my 72 Z for a while now and looking for a place near So Cal to get it dipped, neutralized and E-coated.  Any suggestions?  I've found L&M Stripping in Van Nuys and Strip Clean in Santa Ana but I don't think they do E-coating dips.

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