Chemical dipping a vehicle

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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 9:32 pm
When a chemical dipping engineer dips a vehicle, does anyone know what kind of chemical it is that they use?



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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 10:13 pm
Why do you want to know ?
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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 10:25 pm
A really good set-up will have several tanks and a "dryer" of some type. The most economical tank for removal of paints is usually a sodium hydroxide tank operating at 180 to 200 degrees. They'll refer to this as a hot tank or the caustic tank. As metals have gotten more exotic you may also find that they have a cold solvent tank (still heated to 72 or 75 F) which is methelyne chloride, alcohol co-solvents, and alkaline or acid activator. There may also be a neutralizing tank (fairly strong oxalic acid or sulfamic acid) that get the pH back after those tanks. After the body has gone through the strip tanks a high pressure cold water rinse or a steam fired hot water rinse can muscle any remaining residue out of nooks/crannies. Since these stripping processes really have no impact on rust there may also be a de-rusting tank (think naval jelly type chemical). The dryer is more like a bake cycle booth that makes sure that everything gets evaporated and that nothing is "weeping" from the car.
Simple, huh?..... :lol:
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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 11:42 pm
here's a formula I got from a guy on line so its up to you, we talked quite a lot and he seamed lagit
1# caustic soda per gal.
1/4 sodium gluconate per gal.
1 tsp. sodium cyanide per 5 gal.
add cyanide in small quantity's until parts come out bright
ph of mix must be 15- 15.2
this is for rust removal of steel parts, these are some bad assed chemicals. I've been around raw caustic soda it can blind you in an instant and eat a hole through your skin in minutes. sodium cyanide I know nothing about but the word cyanide can't be good.
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PostPosted: Mon May 15, 2017 7:58 am
Only problem with that particular formula is disposal. Every state EPA has different procedures for what you do with the stuff once you are done. The cyanide would be of concern in my state. The sodium gluconate is just a surfactant that makes the stuff work better. And yes, all of that chemistry is of concern in both working with it and final disposal. A lot of states have "cradle to grave" laws which says your are responsible for the chemistry from the time you acquire it until there is proof of it being handed off to a hazardous waste hauler and/or center.
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PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2017 10:31 pm
There's an old-time method of stripping rust involving feed molasses.
The tank is filled with molasses and the parts (or entire vehicle) are left in
it for a couple weeks. Afterwards the metal is cleaned of rust, but I'm not sure
about the paint. I've been meaning to try this on a smaller scale, but haven't
gotten around to it yet. It's also environmentally safe.
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 5:11 pm
Oh, yeah, hadn't thought about molasses in years... It is a chelation process kind of like reverse oxidation (if that makes any sense!) It definitely destroys rust, however it is always a toss up on what it will do to paint. I'd generally say that if the paints were before the 60s or so they'd probably be gone. Later factory electrolytic primers, not so much. Here's an article I found about molasses (must be the sulfated kind, as pointed out, feed grade)......http://www.homercidal.com/molasses/
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 10:07 pm
Thanks for the article, Darrel. That's a good warning that the process will
dissolve pot metal.
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 10:48 pm
It's funny, hadn't thought about it for years....my family grew up in a pretty dirt poor area of eastern Kentucky. I'm fairly sure I remember my grandfather talking about derusting old brake drums and parts with it. Cheap and available, they'd kind of soak and forget about them for awhile..... clean them up and sell stuff at community sales.
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