Cleaning parts

Andrew: On another subject, if you're taking your springs apart to clean them, I recommend that you use "Slip Plate" graphite between the leaves when assembling. I tried it and it works great. I bought the graphite paint from Granger Supply: Not sure if you have that supplier either.

Mark

The "Rust Release" product looks great. None available in my country which is regretable. I'm mainly dealing with suspension and chassis components at the moment so an ultrasonic cleaner is not an option I can use at the present time. Your right Mark, Molasses is slow and will only remove rust using the Chelation process. Its the other bits like 80 year old paint that I need to sort out as well.

I've heard that soda blasting leaves a certain about of film on the steel, and a grit blast is a downright No No for a premium restoration , particulaly in parts that will be lubricated and moving due to the slow release of grit over time. I live on an island off the coast of Australia and plastic forms of sandblasting are unavaible to me at this time........

At this point in time I'm considering Hydrochloric acid, using a mild caustic solutuion to netarulaize the acid before painting......

Regards

Andrew

I also tried the molasses route, but it was too slow. I have written on this site about a product called Rust Release. It doesn't burn your skin and it is non-toxic. It's sold here in Chicago area, and I bought a 50 gallon drum of it for the purpose of cleaning an engine. It's really good for rust and doesn't harm aluminum or base metals. The engine that I soaked was seized-up real bad, but after a few days of soaking, I was able to remove the pistons with no problem. The metal was clean of all rust, and the small amount of paint that was clinging to the metal was still intact. <!-- s:!: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_exclaim.gif" alt=":!:" title="Exclamation" /><!-- s:!: --> I also tried pot metal with this product, and it was unharmed, as well.
You would be advised to power wash off grease before soaking in this stuff, however.

Mark

There are many ways to clean parts. It all depends on the type of part and what it is you want to remove. For hard parts with old grease I have a five gallon ultrasonic cleaner. I use a produce called 7071 Tect-7 This is an industrial product that is not flamible . Rubber gloves ARE needed. I turn the cleaner up to about 90C in an hour or two the paint and grease is gone. Do NOT put aluminum in the tank it will be damaged. If there is rust that needs to be removed on hard parts I sand blast it. If there is rust on sheetmetal, phosphoric acid cleans and nutralizes it. Phosphoric acid is used in the dairy industry for cleaning. In the US there is Fleetfarm or Tractor supply which cater to farmers. It can be purchased very reasonably there as opposed to an autobody supply.
BTW sand blasting is a figure of speech, use media that is appropriate.

The Molasses works slowly but its easy to use. No real need to worry about things being etched or eaten away. The process only removes rust....

I'm going to give the phosphoric acid a go........

Thanks again

Andrew

I just used it straight out of the jug. Poured it into a coffee can and put the parts in there. Then I washed them well with water and a brush once the rust was gone.

Your molasses method sounds interesting, but obviously you need to allow a lot of time. The phosphoric acid seemed to work pretty quickly, but if I remember right, the stuff is costly, about $8.00 +/- per gallon. Years ago I tried muriatic (spelling?) acid to clean rust off steel, and I don't think it worked too well.
I have also used battery acid to lighten steel parts for my race car. It took off rust really quickly, as well as removing some of the base metal if I left it in long enough. It works really fast. I bought that in 5 gallon jugs from NAPA. I dipped the parts in a solution of baking soda and water to neutralize them. The battery acid was only about $2.75 per gallon.

Thanks Joel,


Can you suggest a water and phosphoric acid ratio? Once you removed the parts from the acid, how were you removing any acid residue ready for painting&gt;.....


Thanks again for your reply

I've used phosphoric acid and it worked well. It is sold at Home Depot, labeled as Behr Concrete cleaner.

Hello everyone

I've had some great success cleaning rust off my 1927 666 parts using one part molasses, (a by product of sugar) and 9 parts of water. It provides amazing results after a week or two of pickling.

Has anyone used hydrochloric acid to clean parts? I understand it works well, but quickly, to dissolve all "non rust" items like paint etc off steel ready for painting.

Hope someone can help

Regards

Andrew