I am going to hot tank my '69 Chevelle to get rid of all of the paint, body filler and RUST. Unfortunately, this process leaves the metal bare and ready to start rusting again. Can anyone give me an idea as to where to go from here? It's my first project and it's been 15 years since I had taken autobody in high school and I'm sure things have changed quite a bit since then. I'm sure i still have pretty good hand skills, only time will tell.
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"NORMALLY" places that 'hot tank' an entire car coat them afterwards with a process that prevents rust. I can't remember the process name but it puts on kind of a greenish/black 'primer' type coating inside and out.

Darren,

I did the same thing with my '69 Chevelle.

After you have the car tanked you need to get it "E-Coated". This is a process where they apply an electrostatic charge to the car and then dip it into a vat of liquid primer that adheres to the electric charge. The e-coating provides a uniform thickness over the whole vehicle everywhere the liquid can get into.

You will need to strip the ecoating off in the areas that need metalwork before you do any welding, etc. but it prevents the car from rusting from the inside out while you are doing your work.

Good luck,

Bill

How much does this kind of process cost?

Thanks, Neal

Neal,

I paid $500.00 for the stripping and $1200.00 for the ecoating.

Good Luck,

Bill

Thanks All!
Sleeper, is this a very common practice? How available is the E-coating and where do I look to find someone that does this kind of work??
Darren

Darren,

It depends on what you mean by "common". It's not common practice among alot of car folks to hot tank their car an completly strip it because a lot of people do not do a complete tear down. So e-coating is not common among the community at large.

However, e-coating is a common practice among those that perform a a complete strip down and tank the car. The stripping removes everything that is not metal on all surfaces (outer panels, inner panels, etc.) even in between overlap seems. You will never be able to get at all those areas with a spray gun. So if you don't e-coat the car it will literally rust from the inside out.

Check with whomever is doing your stripping or some local powder coaters. They might be able to steer you in the right direction. You may also want to try an internet search on "electrocoating" or some variation of that phrase to find someone in your area.

Good Luck,

Bill