Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

[Brandon T.]

Frame is stripped on my 58 and ready to have it blasted and power coated not sure to acid dip it or not. I was planning to acid dip it and spray the inside of the frame with the kit from eastwood company to coat the inside. Some say not to acid dip it though?

[Gene M.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I did one frame dip in acid, never again. You will find drips from it on the floor even after a year later when the car is all done.

Sand blasting is much cleaner after it is done. Sand air blow out..........

[Russ S.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I had mine acid dipped many years ago and haven't had any issue at all. Could be that today's acid dip would have different results as the method is different.

[Brandon T.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

i just thought it would be nice to acid dip it to really clean any rust on the surface off from the inside then do the pull through pant method to seal everything back up.

[Norris W.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I'm not sure if it was acid, but I had one of my '63 frames done at a place called Unpaint about 20 years ago. They supposedly neutralized it after it came out of the tank, but I stopped at a coin op on the way home and spent about an hour pressure washing it inside and out. Later that day we metal prepped it with that green Dupont stuff that is about the consistency of water and has 2 stages, and dried it, then primed it. For about a year I got all this white residue crap all around the overlaps in the frame rails. We'd sand it there and reprime, and it'd come back in several days. Finally after months of this we finally quit seeing that through the primer and painted it with an flattened enamel with catalist, which was before frames were being powder coated. It's under the car now and I haven't seen any signs of the previous issues, but it's never been wet either. I haven't done one any way other than sandblast, etch and paint, or either sandblast and powdercoat since then.

[Jeff A.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

Frame is stripped on my 58 and ready to have it blasted and power coated not sure to acid dip it or not. I was planning to acid dip it and spray the inside of the frame with the kit from eastwood company to coat the inside. Some say not to acid dip it though?

Brandon,
I did exactly what you are planning on my '66 a few years ago, i.e., acid dip, sand blasting, powder coating, then spraying Eastwood's "black heavy duty anti-rust" product (with a long wand) inside the rails. I'm happy with the results, but then again, the car never sees any weather. I'm confident that the frame won't rust out in my lifetime. Hauling the frame 60 miles back and forth to the "dipper" in my pickup was, well, interesting... Nonetheless, I think you'll be happy with the results.
Good luck,
Jeff

[Russ S.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

Actually, is today's process an acid? From what I had last heard the only method available was a water solution(don't know if any thing else was added) that was used in conjunction with an electrical charge. As I recall it was the electrical charge that did the work of removing the rust. Any body have further info ?

[Norris W.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I believe that today's processes involving the water based chemicals along with the electrical charge are probably a lot less corrosive and also easier to neutralize than the stuff they used when I last had one dipped. There's a place in Florida that always has a boot at Turkey Rod Run/Daytona that dips/neutralizes and coats and the resulting finish on the metal is a coating that looks almost galvanized. That would probably be my preference now if they weren't over 500 miles away.

[Domenic T.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I was going to acid dip a long time ago but wanted it primer dipped also which was not available.

I had my frames powder coated and am very happy with them.

DOM

[Norris W.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

Another thing to consider with dipping and painting vs powder coating is price. (I think they went up a hun since then) The last frame I had done at Performance Coatings in Jonesboro, Ga a couple of years ago cost 6 or 7 hundred including sandblasting. By the time one is dipped, and then today's primers and topcoats with catalysts are bought it will likely cost a good bit more.

[Steve L.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

Mine was a phospate dip but I suspect that they are all a phospate rather than acid. It did a greate job . It's the only way of derusting the inside of the rails.
But I still had to poke loose rust out from overlapped joints.

I used a 3M wand to get paint inside the rails

[Ronald L.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

Phosphate is an acid, it still will etch into steel, just at a slower rate than hdrochloric or sulferic.

One to keep in mind is that the only thing holding all those metal stampings together is the welds, rust and acid eat on those too so your frame is substantially weaker that when new. Are you checking these for integrity and repairing?

30 years ago acid was cheap, but also it eats as much metal as rust. Caustic was only stated to remove the rust, not the metal .

[Joe R.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I've had several frames blasted and powder coated with excellent results. Economical way to remove the rust on the outside. Certainly the acid/phosphate dip removes ALL the rust but it also creates a problem. You have to paint the inside of the frame if you don't want it to rust from the inside out. That could be a problem with these old frames. It's hard enough to get everything painted on the outside let alone using a wand inside the frame. Just can't imagine that method gets a nice even coat on everything inside. I think the operator is just fooling himself thinking a wand will reach and cover everything inside a Corvette frame.

JR

[Christopher A.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

I've had two frames dipped in acid and never had an issue. They were dry as a bone on the inside after dipping and 10 years later on one car and 6 on the other and neither have rust issues on the internal structure of the frame. The frame obviously must be washed out correctly to deactivate the acid afterwards. I can't imagine how a frame would drip acid still a year after dipping-odd.

[Steve L.]

Re: Some say acid dip the frame some say not to..your op's please.

The 3M wand I used shot paint forwards and two sides. Then I checked with a snake camera for coverage.