Aircooled VW South Africa

acid baths are usually easy to find, just not in the size big enough to do a chassis....

for the wet sand blasting idea, you can always add a soluble oil to the water to prevent rust....... then wash the area when you are ready to paint, allow to dry and primer it

Hi lowlight

No big acid baths in my area but in your area there is, cant remember there name but it is a company that does galvanizing, and they have big acid baths, big enougth to put the whole car in

Macsteel

Not sure if macsteel does galanizing, i do know they buy there steel in bulk from Mittal and resell it to other clients in smaller amounts

Macsteel in PE has a huge acid bath,that can fit 2 cars,for their galvanising.

I know,because I had to get rid of the old one they took out.

then there should be a branch in durban/PMB area, there is a branch in Newcastle but they do not have that fasilities

The 80 grit seems to work quite well

Tried last night, by hand Gives you a workout. I will be having bulging biceps after this project is done

I have a Black and Decker sander here; I'm sure that it would make the task much easier

Today after work, will be in the garage until dark working on the chassis

BKB, dont tell me it is a orbital sander, and that you want to remove all the old paint and rust with that?, Get those sand paper disc that fits on to a small grinder, works much better

Nope, it's not an orbital sander...

It's the one where you fit a square piece of sandpaper

I have a wire brush attachment for a drill to remove the rust with...

Is the baseplate on the sander spinning or is it just making circular vibrations?

Nah, the one making square vibrations

have you tried one of these yet??? it spins at 8500rpm on an angle grinder. its q uite relentless and nothing stands in its way!!! go get one at your local builders warehouse!!!



the pic comes from this site which has a fantastic write-up of a full bug rebuild.

http://www.cirkut.com/bug/week4.html

BKB then it is a orbital sander that you have there.

Sand blasting or wet blasting is the easiest way to do it.
I've used those wire cup wheels that fit on an angle grinder and while they work well removing paint they're nearly useless on removing rust or mill scale.

In order to prevent the bare steel from tarnishing quickly you can mix 5% ammonia by volume into the water. The ammonia will have no effect on the Duram NS4 primer.

If you are going to use one of those wire wheels on the angle grinder, make sure that you wear a FULL face mask/shield(almost like a welder's helmet). Those wires DO COME OFF..... ask me how I know!?

While taking paint off and dealing with light rust, it is absolutely USELESS against stuff like Durabak(sp?) or those rubber coatings. All it does is 'melt' the rubber and move it around...... ask me how I know!?