Super1800GTR
10-05-2005, 02:47 PM
Well... maybe not free, but damn cheap. I read about this on another board & thought I'd share my experiences w/ you guys.
Remember in High School chem. class when you cleaned the old penny using electricity?? This is the same thing but on a more practical scale. Don't be fooled into buying an expensive kit. You have all the parts laying around your house.
This process works on any rusted metal part. DO NOT USE ON ALUMINUM, SS, CROME, or NICELY PAINTED PARTS. It will remove EVERY THING including paint, dirt, etc. Use at your own risk.
Here's the skinny:
Parts Needed: Plastic bucket, battery charger, H2O, Sodium Carbonate, rusted car part, metal utility wire, piece of wood/plastic, piece of sheetmetal.
Take a plastic bucket that's big enough to fit the entire rusted part (@least the entire rusted part of it). Empty cat liter containers, old cat boxes, trash cans, or even make your own "tub" out of 2x4's & a tarp. Anything PLASTIC that holds water will work. Fill it with water.
Mix in a few tbs of Sodium Carbonate or similar. If you have a pool chances are you have a bottle of Sodium Carbonate laying around (I think it's the stuff that increases PH). Baking soda also works (sodium bicarbonate) as does laundry soda (mostly sodium carbonate). The ratio is about 1-2tbs per gallon of H20. More isn't better.
Wrap metal wire (coat hanger, chicken wire, etc.) around part to hold it secure & hang part on a piece of wood/plastic over the bucket. Make sure rusted area of part is completley submerged
Insert piece of sheetmetal into water with part. Make sure it's close to the part but NOT TOUCHING. If the sheetmetal is too far away the rust wont come off as easy.
Hook up battery charger leades like so: NEGATIVE to coat hanger (make sure it's above water) and POSITIVE to scrap sheetmetal (above water).
Double check that everything is secure & you have good connections. Plug charger in & check to see that you're pulling amps. Mine was around 2.
You should see bubbles rising off of the part within a few minutes. After an hour the water will be a dark rusty color. Depending on how rusty the part is it may take a while for this to work. If you part has excess paint or powdercoating it might take a few trys to get them clean.
After the part has cooked for a few hours and you see the dirty red foamy water. Unhook the charger & pull the part out. Spray it off with a hose. The rust should have turned black. Take a wire brush or wire wheel on your drill and go over the part. The black should come off easy leaving fresh metal.
Hints for better results:
If you're doing something like a crossmember (what I'm working on) take it apart completely, remove as much road grime & crap as you can before doing this process.
Check the connections periodically to make sure it's still pulling amps. Remove the sheetmetal every now & then Especially between cycles and clean it w/ a wire brush.
Once the water is VERY dirty pour it out & start over with a new sollution.<< I honestly don't know if it's better to do it this way. BUT everything's free so I don't care :).
A piece of sheetmetal with a wide surface area would work better than a skinny piece of flatbar. Don't use something too thin, however, because the rust will eat through it. Yes, in the process of derusting the car part, you're rusting the sheetmetal.
In the future I plan on using a big tub with multipal power sources so I can do bigger parts. At work we have these huge plastic trash bins.... hmmmm.... :).
Pics later
Remember in High School chem. class when you cleaned the old penny using electricity?? This is the same thing but on a more practical scale. Don't be fooled into buying an expensive kit. You have all the parts laying around your house.
This process works on any rusted metal part. DO NOT USE ON ALUMINUM, SS, CROME, or NICELY PAINTED PARTS. It will remove EVERY THING including paint, dirt, etc. Use at your own risk.
Here's the skinny:
Parts Needed: Plastic bucket, battery charger, H2O, Sodium Carbonate, rusted car part, metal utility wire, piece of wood/plastic, piece of sheetmetal.
Take a plastic bucket that's big enough to fit the entire rusted part (@least the entire rusted part of it). Empty cat liter containers, old cat boxes, trash cans, or even make your own "tub" out of 2x4's & a tarp. Anything PLASTIC that holds water will work. Fill it with water.
Mix in a few tbs of Sodium Carbonate or similar. If you have a pool chances are you have a bottle of Sodium Carbonate laying around (I think it's the stuff that increases PH). Baking soda also works (sodium bicarbonate) as does laundry soda (mostly sodium carbonate). The ratio is about 1-2tbs per gallon of H20. More isn't better.
Wrap metal wire (coat hanger, chicken wire, etc.) around part to hold it secure & hang part on a piece of wood/plastic over the bucket. Make sure rusted area of part is completley submerged
Insert piece of sheetmetal into water with part. Make sure it's close to the part but NOT TOUCHING. If the sheetmetal is too far away the rust wont come off as easy.
Hook up battery charger leades like so: NEGATIVE to coat hanger (make sure it's above water) and POSITIVE to scrap sheetmetal (above water).
Double check that everything is secure & you have good connections. Plug charger in & check to see that you're pulling amps. Mine was around 2.
You should see bubbles rising off of the part within a few minutes. After an hour the water will be a dark rusty color. Depending on how rusty the part is it may take a while for this to work. If you part has excess paint or powdercoating it might take a few trys to get them clean.
After the part has cooked for a few hours and you see the dirty red foamy water. Unhook the charger & pull the part out. Spray it off with a hose. The rust should have turned black. Take a wire brush or wire wheel on your drill and go over the part. The black should come off easy leaving fresh metal.
Hints for better results:
If you're doing something like a crossmember (what I'm working on) take it apart completely, remove as much road grime & crap as you can before doing this process.
Check the connections periodically to make sure it's still pulling amps. Remove the sheetmetal every now & then Especially between cycles and clean it w/ a wire brush.
Once the water is VERY dirty pour it out & start over with a new sollution.<< I honestly don't know if it's better to do it this way. BUT everything's free so I don't care :).
A piece of sheetmetal with a wide surface area would work better than a skinny piece of flatbar. Don't use something too thin, however, because the rust will eat through it. Yes, in the process of derusting the car part, you're rusting the sheetmetal.
In the future I plan on using a big tub with multipal power sources so I can do bigger parts. At work we have these huge plastic trash bins.... hmmmm.... :).
Pics later