The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Garage Rust Prevention

I know this has been on here before, but it probably needs rerun. A few weeks a go I went out to the garage, and I noticed that the handle on my bench vise was all rusted. I had used it a couple of days earlier with no sign of rust. I am in southern CA, where you can crawl under a 15 year old car, and it still looks like new, including exhaust. I was under the bench looking for a can of paint, and I come across a plastic jug of Muriatic Acid, and it had sprung a small leak in the bottom. I didn't even remember it being in there. In just a couple of days, anything that was bare metal in that garage was rusted. Blasted parts, tools, mill handles and tables, you name it, nothing was spared. The worse part is it is not like a damp rust that can be usually cleaned up with a scotch brite and some WD 40, this rust pits, and does not go away. Save your self a headache, take that stuff and put it out back in the wood shed, and make sure it's down wind, because the fumes will travel and still rust. If anyone knows a good way to get rid of this rust, I would be happy to hear it.

Phosphoric acid paint, NAPA carries one variety.

Ed

I learned a good lesson to never keep that stuff in my shop.
Thanks, Jeffrey

Left some in my shed once and ruined a bunch of motorcycle parts I had stored. Rusted anything steel and corroded aluminum parts. Was none too happy to find all the parts I had scoured the internet for ruined.

Even swimming pool chemicals can screw up a vehicle if left in the garage or in a shed near the garage.

One of the rustiest ones we worked on was a 40 Pontiac coupe that the clothes drier was vented from the laundry room into the garage for 16 years.

Ok, I'll bite. Why do you have muriatic acid in the garage? What is it used for??

Commonly used to clean concrete among others.

...in industrial plating it is sometime used to de-chrome print cylinders. Did it for 13 years in a printing plant I managed.

Was that Gravure printing?

Good advice on the swimming pool chemicals. I have seen entire switch gear rooms destroyed when the buildings owners stored them in there.

32vid, yes, gravure printing. Also did flat bed silk screen, rotary on fabric and paper and also Flexographic but this flexo was the only plant in the world doing it on all kinds of fabric.
(total 37 years) then Imports took over the textile industry.

BACK on topic, sorta..... I've ask before but never got a definite answer. Has anyone tried using muriatic acid to de-chrome a bumper or similar item? If so, how did you do it.

Funny thing is...you can also remove rust & scale with Muriatic Acid. Just need to "stop" it with some baking soda and paint it quickly.

.....this past summer I moved into a new house and in my attached 2 car garage is a water softener. After following this post I got curious and took a close look at some scrap steel piping I have stored right next to the water softener: rust all over the pipes but concentrated mostly on the sides facing the softener. I use salt in the thing. Good grief......guess I'll relocate those pipes (at my old home those pipes didn't rust a bit). Dave

Works great to take rust stains off of stainless steel trim. Submerse the trim in 5% solution for about 10 minutes. Lightly brush with a soft bristle brush ( make sure you wear heavy rubber gloves) and rinse WELL with water and dry. Now the trim is ready to tap the dents out, file , sand and polish to that mirror finish.

Tim

Good question!
I have a gallon out in the shed with the idea of removing chrome from a partly rusty valve cover, but never decided on how to actually go about it.
Any ideas?

Yes but.. I'm finding different stories on that. It'll remove the chrome but not any nickel or copper, and can also harm the already bare steel while it works on the chrome.

What I have might be just cheap chrome, no under plating of nickel or copper, worth a test with the acid to see what it does I guess.

Otherwise grinding/sanding it off (impractical for this valve cover) or having it professionally unplated seems the safest options

I bought some new tail gate chains for my unrestored and patina'd 1950 3600 that came all plated and shiny - did not look right on my truck. I keep a pvc pipe on end outside the shop with a glued on pipe cap at the bottom and one to remove at the top filled with dilute muriatic acid for dissolving mill scale from steel bars prior to machining or shaping with a belt grinder. I dipped the chains in there for about 30 seconds and they came out a nice subdued french grey kind of color. They look okay on the truck now. The acid is handy stuff for derusting old tools and other iron or steel objects. It does not freeze either best that I can tell.

I graduated from RIT School of Printing. Worked in printing for about five years total then left
business.

Though that BS degree got me started as a shop teacher
many years later after working as an auto mechanic
before I got my first teaching job. Jeffrey

Let's stay on topic, please.