Can anybody comment on this Model 3041 Proto Los Angeles Oddball O/E Wrench? 7/8" x 1-1/16" seems strange. Coupled with nice Chrysler script engraving leads me to beleive it is a special designed assembly line wrench. Welcoming any expertise on the thought.
Definitely NOT a catalog size. It goes from 3040 to 3045. That is a very cool engraving, but is it stamped/re-composeable? Or you're suggesting it was done by hand on a few wrenches, onesie twosie at a time, at the plant, by someone with a nice steady hand?
By the way, you see that pair of burn marks on the shank and the one on the flip side in between those two? That is classic. We find a lot of wrenches with those marks. It's where the holders on the electroplating rack, which double as electrodes (drawing the reaction from the solution onto the wrench...), were touching the wrench. Helpful for dating the wrench to no earlier than January 1948. The rack was patented in December 1947.
EDIT: Further reading in a thread on that subject
here.
I think the evaporust may have reached the saturation point. It is almost completely black with a ton of particulate rust particles in it. May actually try and filter it to see. This is the first time I've used evaporust.
I always filter used solution into a second separate empty container and use that again, sometimes twice, before moving to a fresh amount of solution from the original container. When you use it more you will know immediately when it is no longer working. But yes, it sounds like yours is saturated. If you soak those in fresh Evaporust, it will strip the rust clean, trust me. But it may also start to fade that finish. So check it every 15 minutes or so. I am serious. If that's black oxide, it will eventually strip it too.