'The Old Hound' 1986 Tech 1

[bab-91]

No, shell should be dipped to see the full extent of the damage, then repaired and then be taken back to coated

No where dips in Ireland nor does anywhere use plastic media so Soda blasting is the best I can make of the situation.

whats the exact process your thinking ?

are you dipping it after ? then the various other coatings, its major work to do a car like this and more so with the rust issues you have and will find, you cant leave it hanging around in bare metal state for long once its blasted, then it sounds wierd to blast, prime, then start welding, unless its going back to be dipped ? , to really do a proper job the shell needs to be 100% finished and solid then to be dipped and treated and coated as a finished shell, its a big big job for a professional with a lot of expirience and a phenominal amount of cash, personly id go buy an m3 with the money it will all cost

At the moment:
Mounted on the rotisserie and soda blasted & sand blasted (for sealant etc) Primed to prevent rust
Body work (cutty cutty)
Blasted again
Paint.

Ideally it needs dipped but I'm not hauling the shell back and forth to England. The body work and paint job is being done at mates rates so it's not working out tooooo badly for my wallet.

[Kos]

I was just explaining the process to Carl that would need to be followed if getting it done

Blasting will be fine but they need to be gentle with it so you don't end up with rippled panels

[polsta]

for a proper bare shell job, this is the way - acid dip, cleaned rinsed treated then e coated, take it home to weld it all up, take it back to be done again, then your left with a new shell ready to paint


http://www.surfaceprocessing.co.uk/down ... o-ford.pdf


spose 1st thing is to get that shell stripped and on the kebab stick to assess it, be awsome to see pics and blasting pics of the process and what is revealed, but this will cost mega money even at mates rates for the body work- metal and panels a fair sum, all the materials, transport costs, its a hell of a lot of hours work- then get it back a bare like new shell- thats when it gets expensive re building it, id dread to think the £££ it would eat, youd have to fully refurbish or re new everything,not to mention all fittings and stuff, its at least a 15 grand job by the sounds of it

[bss325i]

Who did x-works use for dipping?

Aren't they over your side of the water?

[bab-91]

Who did x-works use for dipping?

Aren't they over your side of the water?

He caught the ferry but you know what soda blasting isn't a whole lot cheaper... the only thing holding me back would be, I don't think I'd get much e30 back and the messing about trying to get it over!
http://www.rallyforums.com/forum/showth ... ipping#top

[Fastroad]

for a proper bare shell job, this is the way - acid dip, cleaned rinsed treated then e coated, take it home to weld it all up, take it back to be done again, then your left with a new shell ready to paint

Isn't E coating done after all the welding

[polsta]

for a proper bare shell job, this is the way - acid dip, cleaned rinsed treated then e coated, take it home to weld it all up, take it back to be done again, then your left with a new shell ready to paint

Isn't E coating done after all the welding

note the "take it back to be done again"


which is why, you probably best get as much welding done as you can/all of it, then get it done, then if your lucky only minimal issues to fix after and no need for a 2nd go, at a guess anyway

[Fastroad]

for a proper bare shell job, this is the way - acid dip, cleaned rinsed treated then e coated, take it home to weld it all up, take it back to be done again, then your left with a new shell ready to paint

Isn't E coating done after all the welding

note the "take it back to be done again"


which is why, you probably best get as much welding done as you can/all of it, then get it done, then if your lucky only minimal issues to fix after and no need for a 2nd go, at a guess anyway

So I am guessing it would be:

1- dip
2- weld
3- Redip
4- E coat once zero rust

[polsta]

no you need to ecoat or primer it, after the 1st dip, a bare metal shell after dipping or blasting would start to rust very quickly after getting it home, so after any form of dipping it needs a clean,treat,coat , which is why if you get it done before welding, you need to then re do it after welding (expense)

whatever you do- you want to end up with the fully welded rust free fixed shell, with a clean fresh ecoat on,(that needs no more messing about with) that you then get painted

[jimbom30cab]

or spend the thousands it would cost on a round the world holiday.

Could you imagine going to this expense and then some dim bird pulling out on your and t boneing the car......

what a waste of money

[bss325i]

If you went through life thinking like that then you wouldn't have anything nice.

[Fastroad]

no you need to ecoat or primer it, after the 1st dip, a bare metal shell after dipping or blasting would start to rust very quickly after getting it home, so after any form of dipping it needs a clean,treat,coat , which is why if you get it done before welding, you need to then re do it after welding (expense)

whatever you do- you want to end up with the fully welded rust free fixed shell, with a clean fresh ecoat on,(that needs no more messing about with) that you then get painted

Now that explains why it is so expensive

[bab-91]

Compared quotes for soda blasting and acid dipping today and the savings aren't that extensive considering the cost of parts for the resto.

Starting to see soda blasting as a false economy.... So we will see what happens from this point.

The transport could make a break any idea of dipping seeing as I've paid £400 to have a car transported one way from England, so like most of this build, I might be reliant on the kindness of friends.

[jimbom30cab]

"kindness of friends"

the best sort of help

[maggspower]

no you need to ecoat or primer it, after the 1st dip, a bare metal shell after dipping or blasting would start to rust very quickly after getting it home, so after any form of dipping it needs a clean,treat,coat , which is why if you get it done before welding, you need to then re do it after welding (expense)

whatever you do- you want to end up with the fully welded rust free fixed shell, with a clean fresh ecoat on,(that needs no more messing about with) that you then get painted

Now that explains why it is so expensive

I'm sorry but Polsta is wrong, and you were indeed right Fastroad.

There is no need to E-coat after 1st dip, any surface flash rust is delt with on the second dip. The idea is to get the thing solid fairly quickly and then back for second dipping.

[bab-91]

Dam right Jim, their not a bad bunch and the fact that they all have some form of car related trade was no accident!


The car could be sat for an estimated 2 months as it will be chipped away at after work hours. So Karl could have a point!

[maggspower]

The car could be sat for an estimated 2 months as it will be chipped away at after work hours. So Karl could have a point!

The E-coat is about £750 a go, I wouldn't want to do it twice.

Taken from the SPL web site, I have used them in the past:

"The shell is left with a bright and stable mild steel finish. We would recommend that the shell be weld repaired at this stage, before being returned to SPL for a repeat of stages 3 and 4 prior to painting."

[bab-91]

The car could be sat for an estimated 2 months as it will be chipped away at after work hours. So Karl could have a point!

The E-coat is about £750 a go, I wouldn't want to do it twice.

Taken from the SPL web site, I have used them in the past:

"The shell is left with a bright and stable mild steel finish. We would recommend that the shell be weld repaired at this stage, before being returned to SPL for a repeat of stages 3 and 4 prior to painting."

Well this is it, I don't want to throw money at it unnecessarily. So even if it was sat for 2-3 months while welding was being done it wouldn't really matter?

[maggspower]

No, it would be fine for that long.

[Fastroad]

Anyone had a rough estimate of what this whole process would cost?

[polsta]

All I was saying (said I was guessing) that you dont want a bare shell sat around for too long, what you need to do is find out/ask them how long its ok to sit for, and really get working out time scales of everything and costs of transport, welding, panels, paint, and see how much its going to work out at to get to that point

Then factor everything else and work out if its worthwhile or just spend the money on or towards an m3 or just buy a nice 7k sport and have loads left over or whatever

Would be nice to see it done, but be under no illusion it will eat money like you wouldn't believe and be way way over what you could estimate at the moment, there won't be much youl want to re use from all the bits you removed and youl see that shell that's cost you fortunes and won't want to put rusty or worn bits back on it, youl be basicly building a brand new e30 and so so many bits from BMW will be needed I wouldn't like to think how much

[polsta]

Anyone got an idea ? I havnt get a clue but youl easily spend 20 grand on it I'd say

[bss325i]

Not on body work alone.

[maggspower]

Dip and E-coat costs about £1500. They price each shell individually.

The process with the second dip is less thorough, as there is no paint etc to take off, only the flash rust. But you do have to pay for it and get the car there and back too.

[polsta]

Not on body work alone.

Course not ,I mean how much from how the car is now, to that bare shell painted stage and then to it being on the road - id say 20k easily to do properly and paying for it all to be done and all the parts needed would be phenominal

[Fastroad]

Dip and E-coat costs about £1500. They price each shell individually.

The process with the second dip is less thorough, as there is no paint etc to take off, only the flash rust. But you do have to pay for it and get the car there and back too.

Doesn't sound too bad if you managed to buy a cheap M3 shell and had your own trailor to save transport costs.

[bss325i]

Not on body work alone.

Course not ,I mean how much from how the car is now, to that bare shell painted stage and then to it being on the road - id say 20k easily to do properly and paying for it all to be done and all the parts needed would be phenominal

You cant put a fixed or even close price on a restoration as every car is different and it all depends on what E30 you start with and the condition of all the parts on it.

[Gert_8]

Hey Bab, all I can think is looking after mental patients must pay very well!!

[polsta]

Dip and E-coat costs about £1500. They price each shell individually.

The process with the second dip is less thorough, as there is no paint etc to take off, only the flash rust. But you do have to pay for it and get the car there and back too.

Doesn't sound too bad if you managed to buy a cheap M3 shell and had your own trailor to save transport costs.

Then say 2 grand on panels/metal and welding, then all the materials, sealants, paint,and deadening and everything else (a grand? , then the paint cost ? Painting a bare shell and all panels bare - do you also get the bonnet, boot, doors fully stripped and dipped ? - then all the prep work on a bare shell to get it final paint ready - would be a hell of a lot of hours (time and money)

It would eat money , even things like re building bare doors using new and refurbished bits combined, new seals and all the other bits, to basicly end up with 2 brand new functioning doors would cost a surprising amount

[bss325i]

Restoration indeed can swallow a surprising amount of money which is why its best to always start with the best car you can.

I think simon13 is in the high teens with his C2 2.7.

[polsta]

Like you say depends what starting with - babs tech 1, you must have a vague or conservative idea Barry ? If you strip and dip a tech 1 shell - so so much you'd need to replace when re building, it would be immense

[bss325i]

Without seeing i couldn't possibly say.

Even stuff that can't be bought new that could potentially have to be replaced like worn interiors, cracked dashes, rare morsels etc etc or they could be perfectly fine and reusable.

Restos cant be fixed price or even close to be honest and even people that do it professionally wont give a fixed price unless its like a complete re manufacture like a Singer Porsche for example.

http://singervehicledesign.com/

[maggspower]

The Singer Porsche stuff is very nice

[bab-91]

Hey Bab, all I can think is looking after mental patients must pay very well!!

Not bad if you consider I'm semi illiterate I joke it pays fook all!

I've had the car two years (ish) so you know, it would be different if I had just handed the car to a third party and said "fix this and send me the bill!"

[Gert_8]

I've had mine longer than that, but wouldn't dream of splashing big bags on it in large chunks. Perhaps because it's council.