The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Molasses to remove rust

I'm trying my first batch - see some signs of working. My questions are: 1. Dhould I use no sulfer, w/sulfer, or strap? and 2. Is there a better solution - no pun intended.

Did you see this tech tip on the Molasses Bath? If you have questions, Barry Weeks is the moderator of the Hauling Board. Feel free to send him a PM. He's the author of that Tip.

Peggy M

We are talking about agricultural molasses here.. available at the local feed store or farmers Co-op. I hear it works great but haven't tried it myself.

Much less "stickier" solutions for removing rust. That method is as slow as..........never mind.

I think the question becomes what size, shape and part of the rig are you working on and what is your time frame?

Molasses( farm supply house wet or dry type) only takes a week or two of soaking for most serious rust and gets inside of area's reverse electrolysis misses. ( I have a toy gun that was buried and came out of the ground almost unrecognizable that has been soaking for 6 weeks and is now almost completely free of 'crud')

RE only takes a few hrs to a couple days but needs maintenance to work properly on badly rusted pieces.

Ospho (available at marine supply houses) does the job in hours to overnight... requires some extra work if your using certain epoxy primers, but for some pieces it's way easier and quicker than the RE or Moles...

Molasses is the cheapest route IMO
Ospho the easiest and quickest.. again, IMO, YMMV

I just found the agricultural molasses in both wet and dry. The wet is dispensed from a 55gal drum at 40 cents a pound.

The molasses that you can buy at the grocery store will work, Ive tried it on small parts just to see if it worked, and it did.
The parts came out clean, but it literally does work like molasses, it took about 2 weeks to work.

I think it is a great de-rusting method for some applications especially small parts. Yes it takes a long time so it is probably not a good method for those who lack the "planning" gene. I always have a bunch of parts cooking in 5 gallon buckets of molasses. Just think while you are doing something else, you are also cleaning parts. Talk about double dipping.

Paul, I know its listed, in the tech tip I think, but just for curiosity what ratio did you use per 5 gallon bucket....


...and for those who have been doing it, how often to you refresh the solution?? Molasses ain't exactly cheap around here!

I just use about 2 quarts in the 5 gal, but much weaker or stronger solution will still work.

My drum has been doing random service for several years , I top up with water occasionally.

Alvin,

I have experimented with molasses to water concentrations and certainly more molasses speeds the process to a point. I worked to find a ratio that optimizes: time, de-rusting quality and money. For little parts in a mud bucket, I like a rather hot mix of 5:1 (water to molasses). For my larger volume plastic lined box I use outside in the summer I go with a more economical 10:1 ratio.

I usually check the parts once every couple of weeks, and you will know when the active ingredient is getting depleted as it will require longer soak times.

Down your way you should be able to locate a REAL farm supply store. They sell the stuff for feed supplement and dispense in bulk, you will have to bring your own container. You may have to search some, but they are out there. I have a farmer buddy that hooked me up with a 12 gallon pail of the stuff for $10-15. The stuff is almost as heavy as steel though so don't bring a giant container, I about got a hernia lifting that jug out of my car!

Paul

Thanks for the info, Paul. I actually have a farm supply real close that may be doing just what you mentioned and for years we have always kept at least a quart in the cupboard. I'll stop at the Farm Supply.

I have helped to make a many gallons of molasses. Its been a few years now but we actually raised the sugar cane, stripped it down to the stalks, cut it and ran it through the "molasses mill" and ran it into a big copper cook pan. I always liked it when my turn came to help skim it as it cooked..... I must be getting old. The first time I helped we actually turned the molasses mill with a mule. The last time, mentioned above, we did it with a PTO on a tractor!!

I think we've had something like this before, but this is an interesting link about removing rust with Coke.

If anyone cares to explain, that would be great!

Peg

Coke contains phosphoric acid.
Maybe a Coke and Molasses Shake would speed the process up and strip paint too!

Alvin,

I heard the stories of "makin lasses", but never participated in the ritual as I am a little younger. It sounds sort of like the process of making apple butter. Spend the night stirring and perhaps take a nip of white liquor to keep warm. Good times.

I am no chemist, but maybe Coke with the molasses would speed the process. Add a Mentos or two and watch out!

Molasses works in a very few cases. The part HAS TO BE CLEAN AND PAINT FREE. And it takes at the least 2-3 days for a small part, and weeks for a larger one.

Just sandblast the parts. With the proper media you will be done in minutes and not damage the part. I sandblast at 40PSI and regularly do entire doors and panels with no ill effects.

Coke and molasses are completely different processes and they would not compliment each other. Molasses sugar ferments and one of the byproducts is an acid that eats the rust. Phosphoric is an acid itself and would prevent the fermentation.

Bottom line is that molasses sucks as you have to preclean (might as well sandblast) and wait days (might as well sandblast and paint and install by the time the molassis is even half way done).

PFarber, I think that's a bit misleading.
I've had the Mollasses work in a week on a tail gate that was just 'rusty' as in surface type rust.
If time is important to the job then blasting is the way to go if Time=Money... But if Time is greater than Money, not so much.

I found paint is softened up and anyplace the paint was scratched and leaving access to bare metal that the paint and rust were loose and treated. Anyplace the paint was not lifted still had clean white metal under it.
Yes I still had to finish stripping the paint but it was MUCH easier than before the 'soak' and the ROLOC strip disks worked great on the left overs which was cheaper to use than my compressor and Blast cab and to my surprise faster than sand blasting from scratch.
An application of Ospho after strip disk to get the pitted and difficult area's easily took care of the rest.

It took longer by the calendar... but I had less time and real money into the job. That's a Win in my book.


And incase others missed it... The Coke Shake was a JOKE!

It works.... I've tried everything under the sun to speed up the rust removal process.

The biggest thing is it has to be clean. Like no oil/grease at all.

By the time you clean it up enough you could have blasted it.

Use it if you like... but prepared to be dissapointed with the results. Most likely you will NOT take a shiny part ready to paint.

You have to clean the scum off it, then try and get it not to flash rust (hot water works good for this). Then you have to put some sort of metal prep on it or paint it ASAP.

For a dirty part electrylotic removal is a better... grease still conducts and will get eaten somewhat by the lye mixture.

I really wish people would stop recommending molasses... yes its cheap, yes it works in some situations, but a sandblaster is going to be much more useful and produce much better results quicker.

If Lye is being used someone got the wrong chemical for the RE bath... It's NOT what is recommended.

And still RE is only line of sight and doesn't get inside seams (of course neither does sandblasting)
It's not always about being first one done.

Lye is perfectly acceptable. Its safer to use washing soda, but lye (at least the stuff you buy at the store) is not weaponized or anything... its pretty mild at the concentrations used. I wouldn't drink it, or put my bare hands in it.

For dirty parts electrolytic will get more done.. I everyone will tell you any grease /paint in molasses will not allow anything to happen to the rust under it.

Feel free to try molasses. But don't expect anything near the results that you get with sandblasting. And for the work involved vs the results... molasses is a distant 4th (sandblasting, phosphoric acid dip, electrolytic, molasses).

Pfarber what is wrong with you? It seems no matter what the subject you always know best and imply that everyone is stupid in comparison to you. I imagine you have trouble making friends.

There are many methods of rust removal, and none are the correct methods all of the time. Derusting with molasses is a great way to passively work on small parts when you are away doing something else. Is it THE way to remove rust, no but when did anyone state that?

Here is a suggestion, if you don't like/agree with a particular subject heading perhaps you should not open the topic and add your acerbic wisdom.

I'm offering my advice. Many other posters said the same thing I did or are you upset that I simply did not agree with what you said?

Let me just end this with my most favorite quote ever:

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

Winston Churchill

I don't at all consider you an enemy, though. Waiting for me to agree with something I don't agree with just isn't going to happen.

Remember, share your knowledge and have fun!

Ummm it's not so much your "advise" as maybe the socio/politco/economic self righteous "Listen to me cause I'm and AuThor au tea (cartman)" attitude so prominently displayed in todays media and news that seems to come through some of the verbage that maybe just rubs some people the wrong way

Mr Farmone, please keep us posted of your batch and results.
I have a batch going also. It's a 10 gallon plastic tub from the Dollar Store! I took an interest in this after watching some youtube videos.
I've used it to soak many small parts, like my headlight bezels (yes, it removed the paint as well) and odds and ends like my battery tray, tail gate chains etc.
Currently, I have a wheel rim soaking. I've pulled parts out of the vat and lightly wire brushed off some loosened rust, then dropped them back in.
Since I'm in no hurry, it's working for me pretty well.
Good luck with your batch!
Jerry

I just pulled out of my de-rust vat, the rim I mentioned above.
If you click on my "59 Chevy Apache 3200 Stepside" link to my Facebook page, you can see a picture that I took of the rim.
Scroll down a couple of pictures to notice the "before" black rim in the set.
I also threw some more parts in the vat! It works for me!
Jerry

I may have to give this another try. I didn't seem to have much luck with it before, maybe done something wrong.....

John

I've used vinegar quite a bit and it works great. Just soak overnight and pressure wash. Really bad stuff might need another dose. You have to dry it and apply primer quickly or it'll flash rust.

I have used them all , and they all work , sometimes your in a hurry and sometimes your time management skill kick in .

Just an update on my vote of confidence for removing rust with molasses. I was about to throw away the emergency brake pullies on my 41' because I couldn't remove the shoulder bolts without damage after many soaks in rust remover and PB. I had just mixed molasses and water for another project and decided to drop the 2 EB assemblies in. Five days later, I could tap them out with very little resistance. I'll replace the shoulder bolts, but use the pullies. 7:1 mix, with agricultural liquid molasses - about 50 cents a gallon.

After two weeks I just pulled a deluxe heater from a 56 GMC out of the 9:1 mixed barrel yesterday.
It was as bad as you could expect for starters and will need a patch panel made but it was an experiment to begin with.
Once it was washed off I even saw some of the original brown paint in a spot or two.
I didn't want to fuss trying to get it apart before soaking it so dropped the whole thing motor and all in the barrel. The only thing that isn't clean was the ends of the cables I left above the liquid to grab ahold of to pull the two pieces out.
Hosed them off/out, set them in front of a small heater for a couple hours and then hit them with my new can of Kearny Cutter Linemans oil and let it sit overnight.
Todays mission is disassembly.
If it's a failure I will report back... otherwise no news is good news.

CASO Hope you'll report with good news too!
Jerry

Well all but 2 screws came right out, the copper and other materials were fine, but the insides needed another week or two where dirt or rust kept things 'protected'.

Pictures...... I'm going to have to try this again. Do you warm the mixture or anything to help it work better?

John

I snapped a couple before and after the hose shots I'll post when I move from phone to puter...
No heat other than the Pacific 2 miles away... So a constant 40 to 60 degrees.

a shot after the hose before disassembly...
Mollassess @ two weeks

CASO I am getting a Google server error when viewing. I have no clue who's end that error is on. Does the link work for you from the stovebolt site?

It works for me.

Peg

I never seen a piece on the front of those round core heaters like that before?? John

I just rebuild em... I don't design em...