The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk HOW TO CLEAN THESE LITTLE PARTS???

With my entire truck in parts, many of them in small envelopes, I am overwhelmed at the thought of de-rusting all this. Is there an eaiser way than rubbing with 35 gtit???

Hy BIG CHEVY
3600, A dilute solution of muriatic acid will remove rust from small parts, however they must be neutralized and painted or primered immediately upon removal or they will rust up again, hope that helps.

With the muriatic acid be careful of the fumes. I had rust start on unprimed parts that were in the vacinity of the parts being dipped. Cleaned off easily but why make extra work for yourself!

Question!
Where can I get 5 gallons of this acid?
My father in law was an engineer at Rockwall and brought home some kind of acid to clean the grease or something off the garage floor. It was in a glass bottle and fell and broke spilling this acid all over the garage floor. We bought the house 10 years later and still after all that time anything metal in the garage would rust. If this is the same acid I think I'll do the work somewhere outside

1/2 diesel 1/2 Type F tranny fuild makes great parts cleaner....cheap and easy

Hy guys, I believe muriatic acid should be available at the same place you buy swimming pool chemicals, hope that helps.

Masonry contactor's supply store (used to clean brick, cement, stone. etc).

I'm saving a '50, 3604 also and should be finishing up the mechanical side of it in a month or so.
Been derusting parts for machine tools, antiques and old cars for most of my 65years Big guy. Get you a good bench grinder and stand and put a course wire wheel on one side and a fine wheel on the other and start de-rusting anything you can hold up to the grinder. I do this with nuts 'n bolts, backing plates, grill baffle, grill parts, mirrors, glove box doors, horn, air cleaner, clutch and brake pedels, just finished up all of the parking brake parts from the foot pad back to the rear backing plates today.
It beats, chemicals or sand blasting unless you are dealing with a very, very bad case of rust.
I'll try to post a before and after picture of the brake parts.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Bead blast.

5wests: I second that.

dishwasher? :rolleyes:

Bead blast in a cabinet. put 'em in a tray or pan or coffee can and have at it.

I haven't used muriatic acid but I have used phosphoric acid often. As well as removing rust, it puts a phosphate (I think) coating on the parts which prevents rusting for a period of time, even when you wash the acid off with water, as long as you dry them. If the rust is heavy it's fastest to sand the item then treat it with acid - you may need more than one application; the part will come up looking galvanised - works well where it's not practical to sandblast.

Phosphoric acid will eat away at the rust (& concrete floors) for as long as it is wet on the item, but won't damage clean steel.Once dry it becomes in-active unless moistened again.

When you're done cleaning, you may want to consider soaking everything in GIBBS

This stuf actually penetrates metal and reverses rust! I tried one can and am sold forever. Check out the link above and scroll down that page -- read the Tips that are posted.

PS - I built their web site ... but that ain't why I'm promoting the stuff.

Search the forums for derusting, aw he** here it is I will save you the work:

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/rust/electrolytic_derusting.htm

I tried this and it works great on small parts.

blasting is a good way to go,,you will have to metal prep to avoid rusting...on large flat areas as the hood and top watch out for warpage...doc

Muriatic acid, is hydrocloric acid. Hydrocloric acid can cause hydrogen embrittlement, not a good thing for your steel parts. Use the phosphoric acid or use a viberator bowl tumbler. The kind that ammo reloaders use to clean their brass. Harbor Freight carries different medias for cleaning. One is just for such a process.

Home Depot has a metal prep. that is phospuric acid based. I think the brand name is Strip-ease. $13-14 a gallon. It is in the paint section. I have used it to clean small parts. Just soak for about 30 mins for surface rust and rinse with water. My parts came out looking like new.

I found an old paint shaker. I used a gallon paint can with sand or glass beads in it. Put in the small parts and put on a paint shaker. It'll polosh a lot of stuff.

Builder,
That sounds like a great tip!!!!!!Paint shaker with glass bead. Shouldn't take that long correct?
Dan

I personally would not use muratic acid. I used it in de-chroming printing cylinders. Its nasty stuff. (can be bought at Lowes etc because its used to etch concrete floors) For the money you spend on the chemicals etc I would suggest taking the parts to someone know for sandblasting and give them 10-15 bucks to clean it up. If anyone is careful it will eat off very little metal unless its really bad rust. I personally put the small stuff in a "screen type" pot/basket and glass bead mine but then I know you do not have a bead cabinet....but do you know anyone who has?? Join a car club etc and you will find many hobbist friends who are willing to help. You may also consider taking the stuff to a grave marker/monument company. If they have been in business a good while you can get a good job done for a very fair price. And finally.....Builder, what a great idea. I'm looking for one now!!! Just turn it on and let it do the work for you.

They make a little table top machine that is basicly a vibrator. It uses sand or some little green triangle things to clean the parts. Works great, so far. Dennis, my rebuilding partner got one, and maybe we could coax him into explaining it better.

Ive seen those at gun shows, polishing the casings. I like the home made version better...very manly...I can hear a tim allen (home improvement) grunt.

Not sure how small your small parts are, sounds like some of these suggestions are for jewelry, but the smallest of my small parts are nuts and bolts. Grab them with the pliers and wire brush them. It's the cleanest way, environmentally friendly and fast.
Example, all of the parts for the parking brake in the picture, from the pad down to the cables took a little over an hour to clean up. When their done they look like they did when they were manufactured, still have sharp edges and original-tooling marks from dies, etc.
Here’s are more examples of "small parts" that were all wire brushed on a pedestal grinder, no sandpaper, no sandblasting, no chemicals. Parts were brushed, prepped with Dupont 3900S Fast Clean and sprayed with Rustolium. Every thing in black, except the axle beam, that was wire brushed with a hand tool:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2136558830098611668rwjgca
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2421733140098611668UuEbDZ (Big)
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2770730910098611668EJJKmH (Big)

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I've cleaned up small rusty parts by putting them in a container of hot water and Red Devil Lye. Let them soak for a while (overnight) and it neutralizes the rust into a black slimy coating that washes off.

Lee