rust removal by soda pop question...

i know this has been thoroughly covered here before, but...

what i have is 2 pairs of coil over shocks that are all scaley and rust covered. what i do not have is a media blasting cabinet. these shocks are to be used in a sculpture, not on a car. my question is this: can i immerse them in coca-cola for a couple days and then scrub them well with a wire brush to remove all the rust, etc? or would i be puuting moisture inside the shock that will cause it to rust again, but from the inside out? there's not much, if any oil left inside of 'em, it's all leaked out. my thinking is that the cola will help clean them up AND not damage the rubber grommets in the ends that i want to keep.

any ideas or suggestions?



tred.

 

I think your thinking of soda taking off battery acid, not rust. I don't think soda would touch it. But, if they are just old shocks, try it and see, what the heck.

 

Boy, you can really tell where you live....
On the West coast they're called "Soft Drinks"

The active ingredient you want is the Phosphoric acid that's in the "Sody Pop" (That's the way my Texan Dad usta say it.)
You might be able to buy it at a drug store,
or find out where the local Jewish Deli gets theirs to make their Strawberry phosphates. (Damn, I haven 't had one of those in a looong time!)

 

One of the best things for removing rust I have used is reverse-electrolysis. There is a post on it in the tech-o-matic. It will still need a wire brush after to get the stuff left over off of it, but it WILL work.

 

if you can get them down to me,i can get them media blasted.

george

 

wouldn't the ol molasses trick work here?

 

what's the cost on this george?

tred.

 

i can't say exactly,but i'm sure not very much....a friend of mine does media blasting down here and did some intakes for me and they came out beautiful.

pm if you are interested.
george

 

You can soak them in vinegar overnight and all the rust will be gone. It is mildly acidic,so if might do bad things to the rubber bushings. So will media blasting. Is there some reason you can't take them out?

 

i gotta scrub the shit outta them as is. i wanna bolt them together and the bushings would help to hold the thing together better. the bushings are shot, if they gotta come out, they would be shit and i wanted to avoid buying new ones, but i might have to.
this is turning into one of those 'might as well' jobs. a lot of work for a small part of a sculpture.


ugh.

 

I don't think Coke would do anything in a few days. Maybe after several weeks.

I do know what you're talking about though. Supposedly the old coke ingredients were stronger and could dissolve a nail, or a 16oz steak in a few days. I heard they used the concentrate to pressure wash their delivery trucks at the Coca-Cola plants way back when.

Your best bet is to find a sandblaster you can use or have someone blast them for you.

Harbor Freight sells alot of cheap sandblasters, and they're always good to have around.

 

Charlie don't surf

Coke don't de-rust

Go get some de-rustin crap from Homeless Depot

 

Cola is what does the job, not regular soda.
Phosphoric acid being the active ingredient.
Throw some sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonaste into a bowl hook up some steel to the positive side of a charger and your casings to the negative.
Make sure parts and anything on negative side aren't touching and plug the charger in.
DO NOT DO THIS BESIDE A FURNACE OR ANYTHING THAT SPARKS!!
It'll give of hydrogen, harmless in open atmosphere.
EXPLOSIVE if trapped!
leave it cooking for a full day, maybe two pull out your casings and wipe over with steel wool, either 00, 000 or 0000.
yellow and brown rust and scale will be gone, black rust will be converted back to iron.
Cheap, easy and good.

 

Pay REAL close attention to that techomatic. "baking soda" (sodium bicarbonate) is NOT the same thing as "washing soda" (sodium carbonate). I've tried reverse electrolysis with baking soda, and it didn't do much. I've seen other people here say the same. Washing soda is much stronger stuff:
http://www.cutofcloth.com/article_bakingsoda.asp

The next time I try this I will use washing soda. Learn from my mistake, and skip the step where you learn hands-on that baking soda doesn't work.

You could also try one of the commercial rust removers that have a good reputation:
http://tinmantech.com/html/must_for_rust_remover_inhibi.html

 

I agree. It worked good for me with baking soda. But when I used the washing soda it REALLY worked! Tred, I really think this is a good CHEAP way to do it. Easy as hell too...

 

I used soda and scrubbed it with tin foil on my bumbers to get the rust off. It worked decent

 

We use sodium bicarbonate in our shop.
Works real good, releases more hydrogen than sodium carbonate, which in my opinion seems to take longer to get a result.
Don't understand why you should get a different result with sodium carbonate, the reaction is exactly the same other than the additional hydrogen release.