Vinegar for rust awesome!

[olds70supreme]

Okay, I am repainting my car and have a load of surface rusted bolts and other hardware that I am pretty sure the vineger will work well on. What should I do once they are clean? Baking soda rinse for sure, but in my experience rattle can paint doesn't last too long. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[bgott]

Okay, I am repainting my car and have a load of surface rusted bolts and other hardware that I am pretty sure the vineger will work well on. What should I do once they are clean? Baking soda rinse for sure, but in my experience rattle can paint doesn't last too long. Any ideas?

This'll do it.

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/black.htm

 

[Cruzin90]

Remember: Put a penny in hot sauce for a while and it it will make the penny shiney? Now you know why!

 

[sammm]

Remember: Put a penny in hot sauce for a while and it it will make the penny shiney? Now you know why!

...and the added bonus of the hot sauce tasting like a penny!

 

[z28toz06]

Re: Vinager for rust awesome!

ive heard that lemon juice works too.

my grandson just told me about a recipe for vinegar and lemon mixed together. .

 

[Boiler]

This'll do it.

I'm doubtful on black oxide being the best for automotive. Better than nothing yes, but it is far less corrosion resistant than chrome / nickel / zinc plating. I know zinc holds up like **** during Indiana winters so I'm assuming B.O. is worse. I'd try to find someone to do a bucket full of zinc plating for you to start.

Now that we're on the subject, have any of you guys done the vinegar/wire wheel treatment and then had tools rechromed? How have they come out? I was contemplating doing this. If you did, what type of chrome do you use?

 

[4stroker]

I just tried this on the weekend on some of my fathers old tools.

I used regular white vinegar and started the soak on friday night. By saturday morning I saw that it had started working really well, but some of the more surface rust was still on there. We went away for the night and by the time I got back on sunday lunch time, half the tools were wrecked...

on most of the smaller spanners and nearly all the sockets the vinegar has lifted the chrome right off, now they are back to bare metal and look terrible. the ones that were affected like this were pretty rusty though so i wasnt too upset.

they are quality kincrome "made in japan" tools from the early 90's but have been sitting neglected in dirt filled trays/buckets etc for years.

 

[chicane]

I use white vinegar all the time to clean off rusty bolts and nuts. IT works great. It's just a mild acid.

 

[yellowbox]

Re: Vinager for rust awesome!

I hate the smell of vinegar, never liked the stuff on food (in Europe they put it on chips (fries) all the time, yuk) and then I had to drain (using a mop bucket) and cut up a 2 story tall tank full of it, I'd be happy to go the rest of my life never having to smell vinegar again.

agreed glad i am not the only one who HATES the smell i avoid at all costs , nasty stuff

 

[Dan5602896]

on most of the smaller spanners and nearly all the sockets the vinegar has lifted the chrome right off, now they are back to bare metal and look terrible. the ones that were affected like this were pretty rusty though so i wasnt too upset.

If the chrome is breached in the slightest, then rust would have formed under the chrome. The removal of the rust is what has made the chrome come off. The rust had already separated the plating.

 

[nonhog]

Free'd up some wheel cylinders and a really rusty fuel sender off my 49 GMC.
Poured the old nasty stuff in my 1/4 drum that had gas residue and was very
smelly. Removed most of the gas smell.
Good thread.

 

[BPJOOP93]

pure vinegar is a weed killer
1/3 vinegar 2/3 water in a sprayer on the lawn is a misquito repellant. DO NOT put pure vinegar on your lawn it will kill grass.


will be trying the rust removal trick. i learned something today, thanks guys.

 

[Vinko]

I tried a gallon of vinegar -- soaked the tools in a bucket (some rusty wrenches). Didn't really do a thing. A few cleaned up with a wire brush after soaking about 24 hours, but in my experience (so far) the stuff's rubbish compared to EvapoRust.

I used white wine vinegar. Maybe a different variety would be better. Stuff's kind of expensive nowadays as well. Got a gallon for about $3.99. Gotta try Smart & Final or Costco, were I to do it again, but I don't think I will. Will stick with EvapoRust.

 

[barney rubble]

I like vinegar and don't mind the smell.

I bought a few things at a auction a couple of weeks ago. In the bottom of a bucket was a 1-1/2 C clamp that had been pulled from the mud. It was completly coverd and rusted stuck.

Monday evening I put it in a pan with white vinegar. Tuesday night I took it out and wire wheeled the mud off but it was still stuck. Dropped it back in and 24 hours later I took it out and a little Kroil oil and a rap from a hammer on the threaded part of the C and it is now on my clamp rack looking good.

And I agree if the chrome is loose it will remove it but I have used it on lots of old sockets that still had good chrome and it just cleaned it.

 

[GTVi]

Heating the vinegar will speed up the process. Also be aware that the vinegar will continue to eat at the metal also. Therefore you do need to keep an eye on it....

Has any one tried electrolysis with washing soda (not vinegar), using a trickle charge to remove rust?...apparently this does not harm the part at all.

 

[bazzateer]

I see a trip to Costco in my future

 

[Wingnut65]

This thread just keeps going. I'm going to have to give this vinegar method a try.

Yes, GTVi, there have been many on here who have used electrolysis for rust removal. I'm sure there is a thread here with pictures, but DavidB gave a good description in post 9 of this thread. I know you weren't directly asking how to do it, but someone will ask... I've been satisfied with the results I get from it.

 

[KrisM]

I did this a while back. I found a socket on the ground. Soaked it in vinegar for a couple of days. Although I put it as a week in the picture, the vinegar was completely muck by the end of the week. The actual soak time for the socket was only a couple of days.

 

[was2]

Great thread. This also explains why someone told me that before painting a galvanized aluminum post, wipe it down good with vinegar. Takes of surface oils and coating that keep paint from sticking. Not that I got any posts to paint.

 

[mad57]

heres a fresh patch of rusty tools ill post another pic in 2 days c.m, snapon ,mac ect .

 

[LEVE]

This also explains why someone told me that before painting a galvanized aluminum post, wipe it down good with vinegar.

Yes, this is a good idea for ANY bare metal before etching/priming/painting.

 

[Handyman163]

Just found this. Maybe adding salt to the vinegar at a 1qt vinegar to 2tbsp salt ratio (1gal vinegar to 8tbsp salt) would improve it's rust-eating ability.

http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php?title=Rust_Removal


This method appeared in the 1990 bulletin of the Society of Ornamental Turners:
Soak item in a plastic, glass or enameled tray in a quart of vinegar mixed with two tablespoons of salt. This makes a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid strong enough to lift off the rust but harmless on hands and clothes. For light rust, soak for a day, for heavy rust, two or three days.
Remove and rinse in warm water and detergent. Most of the rust will come off with a rag. Scour rest with steel wool.
Finish by wiping with an oily rag or spray with WD-40.
The solution can be re-used by adding a little salt. When it becomes very dirty, throw it out and start over. Keep a lid on it to prevent evaporation.

I just bought some evapo-rust today from HF. I wish I would have found this first.

 

[rickycobra]

Well i read it here , not sure on org poster but i tryed it i soaked these socket strips in vinager for 2 days, every time i looked at them they still had rust so i left them, yesterday i said well it didnt work i started taking them out well the rust just wiped off, i just assumed that it would dissolve it off but just as easy it wiped off with a towel. thanks to the o.p. good tip heres a pic of after ..they were covered with rust i still cant believe it.

Thanks for passing this along it also better than using chemicals I always hate pouring them down the drain. However I do it anyways.

 

[knucklebusted]

I've got a rear end housing to clean up. I have a gallon of evapo-rust and I just found out that Sam's Club sells 55 gallon drums of vinegar. A couple of gallons is less than $4 so I may do a little side by side evaluation.

 

[e-tek]

Of course this stuff only works on "light" or "surface" rust....Which is great for cleaning up tools, but if anyone is thinking of using it for really rusty stuff - don't waste your time or money. I've tried every concoction for years (often several times per year...) and have never had much luck with them!

Bunch of nuts and boltd, couple of hood hinges:

Oooh - Oooh - is it working?!?!?

Nope....

I always end up going back to the old Sandblaster...

 

[red69ss]

^^^^ Thanks for posting that e-tek, as I was reading this I was thinking I wonder how this works on old automotive fasteners. I guess you answered my question.

 

[mad57]

etech did you try the vinager on those as well... i had a pretty rusty pair of vise grips cleaned them up pretty well.

 

[Alaric.H]

Vinegar is great for cleaning up epoxy drips and your hands instead of acetone or lacquer thinner I think it would work on epoxy paints as well. All this is while the epoxy is still wet of course all bets are off when its dry.

 

[sdowney717]

white vinegar also cleans carburetors. Dont bother buying carb cleaner.
I use dish soap and toothbrush to scrub the dirt off the outside
vinegar soak
(you can neutralize acidic vinegar with some ammonia afterwards if you want, watch out for fumes.)
dont need to soak more than a few hours in vinegar.
Vinegar definitely dissolves off that white corrosion on the carb metal.
I think It will very very slowly dissolve pot metal if left in vinegar for a few days.
rinse well
isopropyl alcohol soak
rinse blow out with air

Vinegar takes several days to get heavy rust off steel and it works well. You just dip it in and leave it. Once or twice a day I brush off the dissolving rust to speed up things.

 

[sdowney717]

I've always heard to use Marvel Mystery Oil to free up sezied engines when the rings are rusted in/to the cylinder walls. Do you think vinegar would work for that application too? Any potential problems that this could cause?

Patrick

I think it would work ok. If I had to do this, it is either PB blaster or vinegar. PB Blaster has phosphoric acid.

 

[340six]

I always end up doing like E-Teck doing a degrease and blasting.
On smaller items like bolts PPG-579 soak gets them

 

[steve911]

I have a Starret 12 inch machinist scale that has some surface rust on it. Not super bad, but enough to bug me. If I soak it in the vinegar, with the vinegar take the black coating out of the little division grooves and the numbers in the scale?

thanks
Steve A.

 

[mad57]

I have a Starret 12 inch machinist scale that has some surface rust on it. Not super bad, but enough to bug me. If I soak it in the vinegar, with the vinegar take the black coating out of the little division grooves and the numbers in the scale?

thanks
Steve A.

i would guess yes... the vinegar removes some of the chrome plating if theres a chip in the piece being soaked.

 

[IHfreak]

very good read.