Removing rust with vinegar aka pickling a jack

Oooh they can just turn him into bedsheets then and get a coach who doesn't lose to the Aggies.

I've used vinegar to treat machines that got water soaked, if I remember right its slightly heaver than water and displaces it, so it helps remove the water from the machine and cleans up any surface rust. Had a roof in a shop spring a leak and there was almost an inch of standing water in the bottom of it. Fully automated machine, tons of little gizmos to rust up fast. We dumped probably 2 gallons of vinegar on that thing spent 3 days airing it out, opened up all the little step motors and put it back together. Fully functional a week later. We still replaced a bunch of stuff just because the insurance covered it. Wound up with almost an entire second machine in usable spare parts (just smelled pickled lol).

The only downside is it doesn't really eat the rust, so you have to scrub on things a little. Scotch pads work awesome though.

 

Wasn't my fault!

I was working on a AC box, no chemicals!

 

Can someone, please, tell me where to find the "electrolysis" thread, or, explain how it works so I can try it on a few parts?

Thanks,
Eric

 

Did you miss post #6?

 

Searching it in youtube brought up some kewl videos too. I think I watched them all. In one, a guy was doing full doors and a hood

 

I ran across one the other night from UK where a guy made huge vats for molasses and did a whole car body in pieces. It's amazing to me that simple things like vinegar and molasses removes rust.

 

U.k.? Go wildcats!

 

Just think - - - we eat this too, and I love it! Maybe that's what's wrong with me!!!

 

If we were to soak a part in stomach acid, how long do you think it would take?

We'd have to wait a while to get it back tho... :16suspect

 

interesting thread guys

I have used Diet Coke to clean corrosion off of old metal, zinc,etc. Heard that it works on rust too, but have never tried it. Diet is suggested because regular Coke has a lot of sugar in it and will attract bugs.

I stopped drinking Coke after seeing how it cleaned up some parts.

 

Oxalic acid works pretty good on removing rust from chrome items. I mainly use it on my bicycle restorations but I did clean my Maverick bumpers up pretty good with it.

Another trick I've learned is soaking aluminum parts in Simple Green to clean and brighten them back up. Works great if you let is sit 12-18 hrs but I left some parts in too long once and they turned black.