questions for the vinegar guys

Thanks all. It's hard to argue with success, and it seems like a lot of people do very well with the electrolye. Based on what I'm understaing, I had no where near enough rebar in the solution.


Mr.Clean, how long did you cook the fenders and hood for, roughly?

 

Do these methods take paint off as well??? Electric, Vinegar, Phosphoric, or Muriatic Acid?

 

Are you all just cleaning the rebar between dips or replacing it with new?

And what Are you setting your chargers to???

 

With the electrolysis and with the phosphoric, it doesn't seem to remove paint unless there is rust underneath it, in which case it will lift the paint off in sheets.

 

I don't replace the rebar until it's really corroded badly. Sometimes I will take a wire brush to it in between dips.

As far as the charger setting, it depends on how fast I want it to work. If I'm going to leave it overnight or during the day while I go to work, I put it on the lowest setting. If I want it to work faster, I kick it up a notch or two.

 

One more thing...you should do this in a well ventilated area because the process releases flammable hydrogen gas, or so I've been told.

 

If you can find powdered lye, use that instead of sodium carbonate. It will soften the paint as the rust is being removed. It does, however, demand extra care, as it will remove eyes, skin, etc. YMMV, but it worked well on some rusted/painted parts. Can't find lye too easily anymore, thanks methheads!

 

Isn't the molasses sticky and nasty to deal with?

 

For the electrolosis process, I placed the fender in the solution as shown in my original post. It has been my experience that it does loosen the paint. Just hit it with a wire wheel on a 4" grinder and the paint easily comes off.

I clean the gunk off with a wire wheel after it dries. I'm still using the same rebars after multiple uses. Concerning the charger settings, I agree with what Saxman said. Lower settings for overnight/higher settings if I'm there.

Roughly 6 to 8 hours each on the fast charge setting.

 

I try to dry the part rather quickly, after hosing off the molasses/vinegar bath. Reduces the flash rust and makes the next metal prep step, a little faster and easier.

 

Do you all use an epoxy primer on the bare metal, and then a normal primer on sheet metal? Or just go straight to a high build primer on the sheet metal parts or what?

On my frame and farm equipment I'm going EPOXY Primer, PRIMER, ENAMEL to keep the rust from coming back. Have never painted any body panels as severly rusted as what I am about to!

 

I find there is an amount of wire brushing require using the vingar bath method. My question is will there be a fair amount of "elbow grease" required for the Electric, Phosphoric, or Muriatic Acid methods. Or is it that I have not left it in the bath long enough?

 

Not long eenough !

 

I used muriatic acid straight out of the bottle, outside, on a rusty, junk yard rear axle. I did catch a few breathes of it (although I tried hard not to). The next day, I developed such a severe lung infection that I had to go out in the freezing air to get a breath. Three o'clock in the morning was so bad I headed for the hospital and their oxygen mask. It took a big batch of antibiotics to get over it. The doctors said that I really needed to come in to the hospital as I was on the way out of this world. Since then, I bought a big bottle of "diver's air" from the welding store. I have several new army surplus gas masks, and am in the process of adapting the masks to a welding regulator and the hose from a CPAP machine, to be used in any future acid cleaning or spray painting. I used such a rig years ago, and it worked great. Nice cold air and no fogging of the glasses. I believe if you breathe out a bottle long enough, you might slight chap your lungs because the bottled air is so dry???

 

Okay, guys, I did a search, and didn't find the answer, so here goes-

I bought a bunch of end wrenches/combo wrenches for a song at a garage sale. Where we live, rust is a constant problem (80-100 inches of rain a year !!) The mostly have surface rust on them, although some are pitted badly, but if I use the vinegar, will it take the bright finish off, as well? They aren't Snap-On/Proto/Matco/Mac/Craftsman tools, they are more like SK Wayne, Thorsen, Ace Hardware, and also some other "no name" brands that I just want to clean up so I can sell them. I know that as soon as I take them out of the de-rusting solution, whether it is vinegar or molasses, I'll have to give them a washing and a light coat of oil or WD-40 to protect them, I do that with all my good tools anyway.. There are some I want to keep, and some will be garage sale'd off.
Any ideas? has anyone tried de-rusting tools this way?

 

I had a tank of vinegar for like 6 months or a little more that still worked. It was nasty looking though. I used a plastic bin with a trash bag over it held on with a bungee cord.

 

I use molasses. I use a 300 gal. stock tank and mix it 7 to one. I buy the molasses in 3 1/2 gal. pails for $9.00 per. It costs about $100 to fill the tank. The mix is effective for about three months. The tank is big enough to do model A roadster quarters, coupe cowls and doors. I use paint stripper for the paint. most of my parts have little if any paint, but molasses won't remove it. It takes about two weeks for a load. I wash the "slime" off with a hose and nozzle and brush on phosphoric acid (etch) to kill the flash rust. I've been using this method for three years and it works great. I wash the parts off on the grass (where the dogs play) and drain the used fluid into the sewer. When the mix gets old it gets kind of rank, but by that time its time to dump it. Norm