Good to know. I used white vinegar because I had it in the shop for removing waterspots from paint. Good thinking, and I believe you mentioned it earlier. Building a frame would have another advantage as I could build an "island" in the middle which would save many gallons of vinegar.
On price: Molassas at the higher price of $12.00 per gallon mixed at 7 to 1 come out to 40 cents per gallon.
Boy, am I dumb. $12 per 3.5 gal. pail!! X 10 pails = 35 gal. mixed 7 to 1. $120 divided by 300 gals. of mixed fluid = 40 cents a gal. Norm
The wife and I just took a getaway road trip. Stopped at or called every feed store along the way. We drove from the Bay Area south to Fresno, east through Yosemite, north through the western portion of Nevada then west through Lake Tahoe and back to Santa Rosa. Must've contacted 50 feed stores. NOBODY had molasses, they were all sold out! After talking to some of the store owners, I found out why. Apparently, molasses is the favored fertilizer used 4-6 weeks prior to harvest in large scale marijuana plantations! Well, from my limited knowledge (cough, cough) of the illegal substance, I know that September is harvest month. Alot of store owners said guys were coming in and buying pallets of 5 gallon buckets! I was pretty disappointed 'cause I was hoping to find it cheap in the outlying areas. Before I left on my trip I called just about every feed store in my area. A couple of stores had some @ $30 per 5 gallon bucket. This morning I called one I hadn't called before and she has 15 buckets, 3.4 gallons for $11.60 each! Bingo! I'm on my way down to buy 6 buckets!
Earlier in the thread someone asked how I was going to get rid of the molassas when I was done. I DID mention putting it on the garden. Try that with vinigar.
Good luck with your harvest... I mean rust removal! I took pictures of my results using apple cider vinegar, I'll post them in another thread. If you can imagine what vinegar would do to your garden you should see what it did to my driveway! Everywhere it was sitting (my plastic lined form sprung a leak) it ate away the top layer of concrete! I knew the shit was acidic, but sheesh!
I want to try the harbor freight stuff on my next project 1936 Ford Coupe, obviously not going to be soaking the whole car so wondering if anyone's tried putting it in a spray bottle or using a rag to rub it on..not a whole lot of rust mostly just old paint but I want to get the car down to bare metal and don't feel like paying a bunch to have it blasted
Justin - I would start by using paint stripper and then use a technique discribed earlier. Cover the rusty part with a cloth and wet it down with the harbor freight stuff and keep it wet until it clears out all the rust. The problem will be the areas you can't reach. I'm haveing this problem with the inside of the windshield and door posts AND inside the doors. When I dip my parts all of the rust is removed from everywhere. It's hard to treat these areas with the Prep & Etch. Someone earlier suggested using a wand type sprayer like the one used for undercoating. Anyone know where to find such an animal? Could you prime/paint these areas the same way. - Norm
An update on molassses. It has now been about a month and a half since I started using molasses. I've completed three loads of rusty sheet metal. equal to two roadster bodys. The molasses seems to have lost it's effectiveness. The last parts were really crusty and two weeks really didn't get the job done. Am I discouraged? Not in the least. I plan to buy a 50 gal. drum tomorrow ($99.00). I'll drain the old stuff and start cleaning another body. I wish I did have a garden to put this stuff on. I'd like to figure out why it seems to loose it's effectiveness. Ive been told that topping it off with fresh water rejuvinates it. If that is the case, it could be the infusion of the oxigen from the fresh water. If that's it, pumping air into the mix (like a fish tank?) or using a fluid pump circulate/airiate the mix should work. I'd like to find out, but right now my time would be better spent cleaning parts. If anyone knows the answer to this issue, please let me know. -Norm
Hi guys ...just chuckin my .o2 in... ...I've tried molasses and it will certainly take the rust off...although its not always necessary to get rid of every last little skerik off rust off a surface to have a successful ,lasting paintjob...the important thing is that if there IS small (make that tiny!!) bits of surface rust left on a panel it must be rendered inert (neutral). I used POR-15 on my 72 Mercedes when I gave it a birthday..I found that it was really good for areas that received no rubbing or chaffing like on inside of firewall or door shells...but on the clean metal floorpans, stones would cause it to peel off in sheets...it doesn't kill the rust at all as far as I know..is a BITCH to weld over,and can't really be filled or primed over really well (in my experience at least) My usual method for cleaning rust like in your 1st pics would be to sand as much off with a 8" disc sander then use a nylon 3M strip n clean wheel in a drill then poss media blast the frame ..and maybe the skins..(I'm referring to the doors here..) the thing is ...if you blast the entire frame you'll buckle the skin...cos anywhere the blasting media goes through the access holes in the frame and contacts the inside surface of the skin...it'll pull a dent in it.. after I've got the area as clean as I practicably can I use phosphoric acid to hold the surface from flash rusting while I'm repairing the bodywork..(my own 57 chev sat for over 7yrs under cover in this state and was fine).. some of the methods described and espoused so far are great but each has its fors /againsts... methods that leave the surface with no 'key' for the etch require extra labour so I always bear that in mind for my clients....lastly ...the key to keeping rust from workin back out from turned door seams etc is thorough rust-proofing AFTER your nice cool paint job...I recommend Fishoilene..nothing 'creeps' into seams and joints quite like it... thats prob more like my .o4 worth !! lol
Fleet-Master - Fishoilene - Sounds like what I've been looking for. Can you give me any idea where I can find it, or is it available under different names. These fold-over seams are really tuff. Still looking for long tubes/nozzles for spraying Etch, "Fishoilene" or primer into windshield posts and rockers.
Hi there...over here Fishoilene is available from several paint suppliers and at least one of the general hardwear chains has it I'm pretty sure Its just fish oil as the name suggests (and yup it smells !!! )...there is some de-odourised stuff around but its very thin and watery...it just runs out onto the ground before it does much good. What I do is tape over the drain holes in panels and spray the stuff in ...then let it sit for a few days...at least overnight. There are prducts used such as cavity waxes and such but in my experience they don't creep the same. I reckon its because they are quite thick.....whereas with fishoilene ,you can bet that if the car sits in the hot sun the oil will melt somewhat and do its thing ....creeep.. I've treated cars sum 20 odd years ago that still look great...hope this is of help to you..there should be someone near you that either has it or can get it... btw 1 litre should do a whole (large) car..
Hi I have a wheelie bin with 20L of molassas and 200L of water, worked great for me, I put almost all aof my A roadster body in it, about 2 weeks at a time. I have had a set of A wire wheels in it for 8 months, will there be any thing left? I just have not had the time to deal with them. Brendan
I picked up some "Evaporust" at a parts house last week and it's been working well for some old rusty 4 bolt main caps from an old block, also worked great on some brake parts. It's PH neutral and you can stick your hand in it if you need to - it's not caustic. You might give it a look.
I have a 53' Merc Flathead block that has been dipped and magnafluxed - no cracks. I have been doing the long screwdriver and brushes in the water jackets, but want the water jackets cleaner. I am going to bolt the heads back on the block with old head gaskets, stand it up and then fill the water jackets, let it stand and the flush them out. From the past posts, the options are:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o></o> Phosphoric Prep and Etch from the Home Depot<o></o> <o></o> Evapo-rust<o></o> Molasses (which by the way I cannot find locally)<o></o> Oxalic acid crystals (aka. Wood bleach in hardware stores)<o></o> Vinegar<o></o> ....thoughts on which one would be the best for this project.<o></o>
I have a 49' chevy business man coupe, It has rust on the entire car. I started wipeing it down with evaporust & hand sanding with 40 grit. works well. Im trying to figure out how to remove the rust from the inside panels, & in exesable areas? Has anyone here used www.metalrehabinc.com ? Any Idea on pricing? Im thinking about cotinueing the way im doing now, finish my metal repairs, then having them dip it....
Personally, I wouldn't use vinegar because it attacks all metal while the others you mentioned only eat at the rust. But that's just me. I have successfully used table molasses a number of times. With a 7:1 water:molasses mix it wouldn't take much. I can't get the feed-store type around here either. It's slower than the other methods but it's cheap and safer than acids. I've had a couple of parts sitting in molasses for a few months because I haven't had the time or desire to finish them off yet. I check them every now and then. They look great. No damage to the good metal. It's hard to beat Evapo-Rust except for the cost. I'd use that for everything if I could get it at a reasonable price. Remember to flush well after no matter which method you use.
I trick I found that works for electrolysis is the heavy duty fiberglas window screen... just wrap the bigger parts with it and you can set it right on top of any anodes... I used a sheet of sheet metal on the bottom (and sides) of my tank, I'd lay a piece of screen over it and lay whatever I want on top of the screen... attach the negative to the part, the positive to the sheet.... bubble... bubble... Line of sight is easy when everything in the tank is line of sight.
I was thinking about this again. I think the main reason it is hard to find is that most folks have no clue what it is! Getting ready to mix up a 55 gallon batch for med sized parts.
Actually most of the folks I've asked recently said they know EXACTLY what I mean.. they just don't stock it anymore. People want "green" solutions and freak at the word "acid". Oh well. I'm about as slow working as molasses anyway so it's just my speed.
The fish oil is amazing. About 25 years ago I bought a quart and coated the bare metal/rusted bed of my 63 Willys pick-up. It completely stopped the rust and prevented more from forming for as long as I had that vehicle, which was always outside. For whatever reason, they stopped selling it here in my area of the USA about 20 years ago.
If you want a wicking oil that is rust preventive, check out Aircraft Spruce. They have a bunch of aerosol products designed to wick uphill into tiny cavities on metal tube airframes. A little pricey but you don't need much for an automobile and if it can keep an airplane alive, it should be tits for a vehicle.
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