Rust removal via chemical means

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I dont worry about toxic or explosive fumes from the molasses water mixture, and i'm not using electricity either. Granted the electrolysis method is probably faster, but with this i can drop the parts in, and not have to fool with them for a week or 2. Just pull em out rinse off, dry and paint.
 
Pool acid from Home Depot, 2:1 acid to water (in that order!!) in the bottom of a 30 gallon Roughneck plastic trash can and a 14" Rallye fits perfectly. TSP rinse is super important, as the parts WILL rust again with a bright orange patina. rinse, dry, then prime/paint ASAP. Evapo-rust is a little expoensive in bulk, try this first.
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moparmat2000 said:
I dont worry about toxic or explosive fumes from the molasses water mixture, and i'm not using electricity either. Granted the electrolysis method is probably faster, but with this i can drop the parts in, and not have to fool with them for a week or 2. Just pull em out rinse off, dry and paint.
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Safety
Normally molasses is quite safe to handle, but if water has entered the tank fermentation may have taken place with the generation of carbon dioxide gas, which is asphyxiating and alcohol vapour, which is flammable.
 
65GT said:
Safety
Normally molasses is quite safe to handle, but if water has entered the tank fermentation may have taken place with the generation of carbon dioxide gas, which is asphyxiating and alcohol vapour, which is flammable.
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Hurray beer!!!
 
TSP Where do i get it ? Or do i just mix washing soda and water and pump spray it on? Then let it air dry, or blow it dry? If so whats the mix ratio and will it work on the parts as a rinse if it has the molasses / water mixture ?
 
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I tried the electrolysis five gallon bucket battery charger method on a cast water pump housing.
It worked good to a point. I wound up sand blasting it to get bare metal inside of it.

All this has gotten me to thinking about my next hood.
The last one I sand blasted it but that doesn't get into the bottom of the rib channels.
Underneath.
So I was thinking about making a tray and laying the hood in it.
Then pressure washing the thing.
Splish splash taking a bath.
Now, does a five gallon bucket of Evapo-rust need to be diluted?
That would make it very cost effective.
In a search I found the following.
Someone suggest the very thing.


Will the real Evapo-rust please stand up?
Hi again
I would like to add a few comments to last evening's post. First someone mentioned a salt and vinegar. One needs to realize that these are both corrosive, just look at what that does to an automobile in the regions where we get snow. You can never neutralize these enough to be safe. However that mixture will make a great weed killer. I believe 1 cup salt to a quart of vinegar.
Further it was mentioned that yo should use Evapo-Rust sparingly, small container to fit the part. This too is wrong. A small container will saturate very quickly and the product will quit working much too soon. I use a 5 gal. pail all the time and I probably clean a thousand parts in it over a period of a year. I am restoring a 56 Studebaker, and every small part that will fit into the pail gets cleaned. If the piece is too long it gets one end done then turned over. Large parts such as a door off the car goes flat into a tray made from 2x6 and plywood with a heavy plastic sheet in it. Door bottoms alone can be done on the car using a trough such as a piece of gutter strung up around the door bottom. Flat surfaces vertical or horizontal can be cleaned if it is only surface rust by soaking an orange chamois, soaking it with product and then laying it on the rusted area covered with a sheet of plastic to slow down the evaporation time. Rinsing it off with water will immediately neutralize it and remove it, leaving undamaged virgin metal behind. No further neutralizing required. Machinery such as lathe parts and beds can be de-rusted in this same manner. This product is entirely biodegradable and requires no special handling unless contaminants have been introduced so disposable is very simple.
Then there was the question about watering down the concentrate. This concentrate must be mixed 1 - 5 with water or it will not work. Less won't work nor will more. The reason for shipping concentrate instead of mix is that we don't want to pay $200 or $399 to ship a drum full of water. Just a few drums worth of concentrate at six drums a piece in mixed form would soon fill a transport trailer. See the logic in that?
We ourselves have numerous customers who use our product in their manufacturing process. For instance West Cast Industries makes manifolds for several car companies. When these come out of their molds they flash rust very quickly and sit for some time before machining to normalize the castings. These are them dipped in Evapo-Rust for 1/2 hour and them machined when drip dried. We have a customer in tn the east coast that reconditions rail cars and all the brake lines have to be cleaned or replaced. Cleaning would require a product that when flushed of/out would not leave a residue that could damage the rebuilt cylinders and valves. This was the only product that worked. We have a customer called Auto-Tube who manufactures all those steel tubes you see under the hood of your car. Being new steel it quickly gets a film of rust when the humid summer weather comes. Again these tubes must be clean before being shipped to the car companies. Chrysler uses this on warranty work on door bottoms using the method described earlier. This has saved them from sandblasting and repainting the entire door. This product cleans the rust away without harming the paint on the outside of the door thus saving them millions on repairs. Our product does the job. We could go on and on but I think that is sufficient information for now. Let me say this product is probably the safest product you can use and requires no special handling and disposal.
 
Before and after. I rinsed with TSP, and water in a pump sprayer. The bumper brackets are almost done. Here is before and after pix of the latch 36 hours later.

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I used evaporust extensively for parts like the latch's and window regulators etc. I kept a close eye on them and only let them soak long enough to cleanse them without effecting the finish! Love that stuff and bought a 5 gallon bucket from northern tool. It lasted my whole project and I still have about 4 gallons of dirty fluid that still works!
 
TSP is also marketed as "Totally Superior Product"...nifty, eh? It in a red box with a Teepee on it with the big white letters TSP. BUT NOTE..."Contains NO Tri Sodium Phosphate"! Buit the Sodium Sesquicarbonate is still "an alkalinity source for water treatment..." and that is a neutralizer of acids.

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Time for a super stinky update on my molasses rust removal. The awful rusted battery tray after 5 days is 99% rust free. 2 bumper brackets are completely rust free, the other 2 are being left in a little longer as theres still a few small spots.

This opened up room for me to drop one of my 67 cuda fender shields in. I left the undercoating on, and only removed the dryrotted rubber seals. This was yesterday. Its about 30% stripped. The undercoating may make it take a bit longer but hey i got time.

Heres before and afters of the bumper brackets. Well 2 of em anyways

Matt

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Cool!

To nasty for me! I will stick with evaporust.
 
Yep its stinky, but cheap, biodegradable and very effective. I am planning on getting a 30 gallon plastic trash can so i dip the parts in there on hooks. Gonna put it behind my shop. I figure i can dip and strip my steelies, and even K frames.
 
moparmat2000 said:
Yep its stinky, but cheap, biodegradable and very effective. I am planning on getting a 30 gallon plastic trash can so i dip the parts in there on hooks. Gonna put it behind my shop. I figure i can dip and strip my steelies, and even K frames.
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The biodegradable part is a plus! But the stinky, sticky is not so great. Evaporust is bio as well and re-usable. I did strain the gunk after each soaking though.
 
Its actually not thick and sticky once you mix the water in solution with it. It just stays stinky lol. Has the consistency and color of used varsol in a parts washer. 30 gallons of derusting solution for $30. Now thats what i'm talkin about. I'm sure the evaporust is a nice product to work with too no doubt. But i'm looking at dunking big parts like steel rims, a K frame, and everything else. And like anybody else whos married, got 4 kids and 2 pets, i got to stretch every dollar.

When this stuff is no longer effective. Gonna try a bit on the grass in a hidden spot. See if it kills it. I'm thinking it will be a high iron content fertilizer. If it works then i will use it on my lawn out of a pump sprayer. It just blows my mind at how well it works
 
Cheap is good when it works! More cash for the important stuff!

Water rinse and air dry? How fast will it start flash rusting?
 
TSP and water rinse, air dry. Mixed my TSP 1/4 cup to 1/2 gallon tap wate. The hood latch is still unpainted 2 days later . No rust. I live in a pretty dry environment though. I may leave that part without enamel clearcoat and see how long it takes to start flash rusting. I can always dunk it back in the tank lol.
 
Battery tray took 8 days. Looks like moon craters all over the top side, but it is no doubt clean. For my purpose the cheap, dunk it and forget it for awhile method works, and works very well. It allows me to spend my valuable time doing other car related things while the steel parts are soaking all the rust off. Plus my grass which is St Augustine thrives in iron rich soil, so i will have a different purpose for this once its not effective on rust anymore. I just dropped all my body bolts, clip nuts, etc into a large plastic food strainer and set it in the tank. I will check on them in a week or so.

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