De-rust your bits using vinegar

[Geoff Butcher]

Think what it must do to your teeth!

[Alan D.]

I'm just rebuilding a front subframe so I thought I give the vinegar a try!

I purchased a painters kettle ( a large rectangular bucket, big enough to take the long drive shaft) and 10 litres of malt vinegar at £ 2.29 for 5 litres ( about 2.65 euros) I soaked various components, including hubs, backplates, the little brake springs, the handbrake levers that go through the backplates, drive shafts, etc. I left them in the kettle for six days, mainly because I didn't get back to the garage!

When I removed the parts from the kettle, I was a little disappointed as there was no visible change. Then I pressure washed the parts and the results were amazing. The rust, paint and grease just came away! There is a benefit to the rust staying on the components, in that it doesn't foul the vinegar too much and can be used again! The hubs looked new, with the ball joint threads looking pristine! The back plates were wonderful. Where the paint still had a good key, it didn't have any effect, but these areas, will be easily wire brushed off!
So I was delighted, ( I'm easily pleased, I need to get out more) my brother in law spent hours cleaning similar parts with wire brush, for the Domino.

Well spotted Stuart!

Alan

[Geoff Butcher]

When you say the vinegar can be used again, do you mean you put it on your chips?

[Alan D.]

Its funny you mention that Geoff, but there were three of us working in the garage today and I bought chips for lunch. But nobody wanted to use the vinegar out of the derusting bucket!

Alan

[johnnyfixit]

Or the rock salt

[kelvink]

Hmmm I guess I'm too impatient as I left my front suspension components soaking for about 60 hours and gave up. Most of the work was done with a wire brush on a grinder in about 20 minutes. Perhaps I might try some small parts again sometime but really I'd recommend a wire brush over Vinegar.

Here's the results I got which I'm pleased with and will paint them shortly.

[kelvink]

Well I had this vinegar left over and thought I'd throw some old gate hinges into it and see what happened. Well after a week I thought I'd take them out and see what they are like and I was pleasantly surprised! No rust!!!! They were in a pretty bad state before I popped them in the bottle but now they are just bare metal. Very rough to touch, a bit like 180 wet n dry but as I say,,, no rust.

So the key is patience. Vinegar does indeed work pretty well. I am however a bit concerned about flushing it all off to prevent flash rusting but lots of water and maybe a bit of bi-carb should sort that then paint as soon as the items are dry.

Yep not at all bad.

[Richard moss]

Another de-ruster that works well is patio cleaner fluid which is acidic, like vinegar, but a bit stronger.

[kelvink]

OK I found a non corrosive cheap alternative to vinegar

Molases. Yep just dilute some molasses 9 parts water to 1 part molasses and dunk your steelwork in it. Here's what I got after an over night soak with a pair of brackets for the Midas. The one on the left is the result of being left in a bucket of molasses overnight, on the right is the untreated bracket.



Not bad eh? It also worked freeing up a corroded nut and bolt.

[Stuart]

Looks very good Kelvin