My project 4 dr

[heli006]

Introduced myself a couple years ago on here and got to work on my dime. Since buying a complete 4dr (without eng and trans, I've stripped it down to a bare shell, repaired *alot* of metal, dipped it, primed and painted the inside, underside, engine bay, and trunk. Am now hanging suspension components, doors, trunklid, hood, and fenders. Finally the project is on its way up! Pretty psyched to be on the home stretch. The car has a low km sr20det and five speed waiting to go in, will get 4 wheel disc brakes, good suspension and may be on the road by summer!

[RMS]

dipped ? scary proposition...was any bracing needed and was there any distortion? did you have to drill any extra holes to allow the solution to drain and rinse? how did you go about replacing protective coatings to the inside of the frame rails?

is she going to be all in black ? I love black cars but could never own one

[heli006]

Dipping is misunderstood. The process is not removing metal, only the paint/primer/rust. Then I had it dipped for a zinc phosphate coating which prevents future rust and provided an excellent surface for epoxy primer which I did later. The result is a chassis far better rust resistant than they ever were coming from the factory. The dip chemicals are base not acid as a lot of people think.

[heli006]

And it will be a metallic black base/clear. The parts painted so far look awesome.

[Byron510]

Agreed = black is rare on a 510.

I have seen cars dipped, there are guys locally here in Vancouver that do the process. The etching is interesting. I saw a Mercedes that was dipped, looked pretty good going in, not much came back out. Was a real shame, but you would have found the same rust issues if you'd done a good job without dipping.
I also agree that you can get to more areas of the car when protecting it after the dipping process.

I'll bet you spent a week in there seam sealing the car afterwards!

Look forward to seeing you project come together, do keep us posted as it looks like you are well on your way to assembly at this point.

Byron

[heli006]

Thanks, I'll try to post more. The dipping certainly highlighted more areas for metal repair, stuff that looked like surface rust turns out to be most or all the way through...Fiddling with little bits right now. All the fasteners, brackets etc that must be sandblasted, primed, and painted etc. no stone unturned.

[heli006]

Finally going off to paint. A long wait while I got bodywork all smoothed out.