acid dipping panels

Gday all
I remember reading on here som time ago someone was explaining how to acid dip your own panels, At the time i never took enough notice but if anyone could help me out that would be great.
Unfortunantly it is not for my Beetle but for a pushbike but when i get the chance using for my car will bw great.
All help is much apreciated.
Derek

Firstly You need a large Non metal tub...
and a lot of Acid....!!

whether You can just go out and buy ACID these days I don't know... they probably want to know what you are going to do with the acid once You;ve used it..??

You would also need a rope and pulley etc to lower the metal bits into the acid... its very dangerous..

probably why not many people do it..

I did see a pic from the US where two fellows had a beetle body nose first into a tub of acid...
they watched football on TV... came out and the body was in two halves...!! lol

LEE

The solution is actually alkaline not acid.
Go soda blasting instead. I have had 1 54 dipped and 1 blasted. I would go blasting over dipping after having both done. The problem with dipping is that you remove paint and sealer from areas that you cant put it back into. Yes it is great and gets rid of everything but that is exactly it ... everything. Blasting and sanding is better imo. I know it is for a bike so I would just send it off and get it done. Is it a old BMX?
T54

Gee had not thought of the disposing of the leftover. Ill go back to getting it done by someone.

Turbo54 it is a Kuwahara bravo pro freestyle from about 1987 I had it crome plated at some stage and it was done very poorly so now has a fair amount of rust nothing structual just surface but cannot let it rust away in the shed.

Thank's all for the info.

I recall seeing an article in an old US VW magazine talking about acid dipping. It had several stages which included some that flushed out the acid. I have heard though that it never really gets it all flushed and it can come back and cause problems later.

It does get rid of paint where you can't get back in to paint. The shop that did it had a system they used with an electrostatic paint that they could use. This pulled the paint in to those areas you could not normally get to.

This is from memory though and the article was a long time ago. I liked the idea as it didn't cause any panel damage but like I said, I heard that it didn't really get rid of all the acid. Someone else may be able to confirm either way but you would need to go to a place set up for it I think.

Yogie

as far as i know tehres only one place in Aussie that does this which is in Blacktown Sydney

Minus Paint - Wingfield Sth Australia
They do it. I have had a whole ca done and think it is great but would it do it again. proberly not.
I would go soda next time.

Derraux - bike sounds cool - get onto www.ozbmx.com.au
Plenty of people over there that will point you in the right direction.
T54

Turbo 54 Thank's for that ill check it out ill also look at the blasting as apposed to dipping cheers
Derek

Hi, you may want to re-think the Soda Blast, as soda is made from salt.....
You never fully get the material out once you've had something blasted as it gets into everything.

my suggestion is to go media blast, with a fine garnet at low pressure

Cheers

Some good points made here...I have had some soda blasting done too...fantastic job but you do need to wash the surfaces thoroughly after. I heard of a local chap that has his car soda blasted and painted the car without washing first...Apparently the paint started to peel in a short period of time. I'm unsure if the soda will rott the item if left but guess its a case of washing as best as possible to be on the safe side

i agree with flintstones. i have sandblasted heaps of cars and parts/panels and if done right its the only way to go.
but, be aware that in the wrong hands can cause extreme damage. so make sure your sandblaster knows what he is doing

matt

Why would you bother with acid, for less than $50.00 bucks get a tin of paint stripper.