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MG MGA - Dip Striping Shell

I just sent the shell and body panels from my '61 A down to get Dip Striped in an acid tank before refinishing. Now I'm getting some body shops telling me its the best way to go and others telling me not to do it on any body parts that are not single panel! They claim if the acid paint remover gets into the sills and A and B post and is not neutralized or rinsed out properly, it will never take paint properly! Anyone else have experience dipping MGA's? The sills have a few fairly large openings to rinse and respray paint into but the opeings of the A and B pillars (front and rear door frames) really only have screw holes. Here are some photos of the progress of my frame up rebuild
http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisvelardi/MGARebuild#
Chris Velardi

No matter how well you rinse you will NEVER get all the acid out. Any panels that are spot welded together will never come clean between the welds. I dipped my first frame off. After it was dipped I drilled the sills and the radiator shelf off. There was residue between each of the pieces. It is not the interior of the sills, A post, B post that retain the residue. You are right they are big enough to rinse out.
R J Brown

I believe the doors, hood and boot lids all need to be done in something other than what the steel is dipped into, being aluminum...Im guessing the shop will know this...

C
C Burnham

Redi striped mine,never had any trouble
gary starr

I had mine dipped about nine years ago (see pictures below) and have had no problems todate.

Must be rinsed well, it also sad for about a year before painting.

Ken
L Caya

Sorry, problem laoding photo, I'll try again.

As you can see I had it dipped on the frame with spacers to seperate it from the body.

Ken

L Caya

Ken,
A couple questions.
Did the stripper bath remove the lead filler between the top and the body?
Why did the frame remain attached? Wouldn't it be easier to do them separately?

Cheers,
Gerry
G T Foster

Gerry,
The bath did not affetc the lead at all.

Itook the body off the frame and then placed it back on with spacers to give some space between the frame and the body, allowing the bath to reach omre surfaces. I did this for two reasons 1. I would get them both completed in alot less time then doing them seperately and 2. I got both stripped for the price of one.



L Caya

Had ours dipped in 1991. The shop that did it ran a very thin blade between the panels next to all spot weld joints to allow the acid to get in and out. Have had absolutly no problems.
J Heisenfeldt

I had mine dipped by Ready Strip in late 1977, and never any problem with it, but I did take considerable care with cleaning and painting.

I did the welding repair and most of the panel straightening first with just a little panel work afterward. It was a few weeks after dipping before priming, plenty of time to dry but not necessarily enough time to dislodge anything from within the spot welded joints. The first requirement is a thorough wash down to remove everything from the accessible surfaces and as much chemical residue as possible from the flange joints, then let it dry completely.

For priming and painting I used Pettit Polypoxy products from a local marine supply shop. They use this stuff on boats below the water line. For metal the primer is almost water thin and clear with a slight touch of acid added to the primer immediately before painting. I then applied two successive coats of black 50/50 epoxy enamel. All paint was applied with a small brush making best efforts to drive paint into the spot weld joints with the tip of the brush. Brush painting all under body surfaces of the main body shell took 6-hours per coat x 3-coats = 18 hours.

Before final painting (several years later) I washed it down and sprayed it with lacquer primer over the black epoxy paint, then top coated it with the body color so no black was left showing. That worked well, and the paint stuck perfectly. It seemed like a royal PITA at the time, but it's hard to complain about success. I had a real good look at this again last year when finally replacing the body sills, and the paint is still on there decades later with never any bubbling along the spot weld joints.
Barney Gaylord

I've had an E-Type Jag (mono type shell with internal cavities that couldn't be reached) and an Austin Healey 3000 (frame and body like an A) Redi Stripped and couldn't have more pleased with the results.
GD Glenn

This thread was discussed between 30/05/2009 and 07/06/2009

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