DRAINO AS A RESTORATION TOOL? YEP!

[1969chargerrtse]

USE phosphoric acid! You can get it on your skin and it has NO fumes! Its available at home depot for $14/gallon. Its the same stuff eastwood sells for $50/gal. It works GREAT. You can put anything in it. Even vinyl parts with metal backings to remove surface rust. I put my A/C vents in it.  It gently takes the rust right odd the metal vent slider without damaging plastic. I also use it on a rusty steering wheel. These are items a media blaster would be too abrasive and damage the part. Good luck

That sounds best to me, since I have no blasting cabinet.  Thanks, I'll try that.  

[1BAD68]

Not to get in a pissing contest but the blasted and wire wheel look is not for me. That's not how they looked originally. Granted they cleaned up nice (that's what blasting is suppose to do) but it alters the orignal look.  I was just offering a possibly different way of cleaning.

I always like to hear alternative ways to do things and then make up my mind on which to use.
Some of us dont have blasting cabinets or even want to be 100% original, so a good cleaning is just fine.

[4aThrill]

Just remember one drop of Draino hits your eyes you go blind in under 15 seconds there is no way of stopping that so wear a face shield or goggles when handling that stuff 

[Chatt69chgr]

I cleaned some old railroad lanterns and the method may be of some use for certain car components.  I got info on how to clean the lanterns without messing them up from a railroad memorabilia dealer in Georgia.  You take a 5 gallon plastic pail like they used to throw away at Federal Bake Shops and put water in it and then pour in about a third of a can of saniflush.  Need to clean oil and grease off first.  Then submerge the part in the solution and let sit for a week.  Remove the part and rinse off with your hose and then use 0000 steel wool and Duro Naval Jelly which is pink and comes in a bottle from Wal-Mart.  When you are finished with the cleaning, hose it off and blow dry with compressor and then spray on clear laquer (you could use the non-gloss) to seal the surface.  Made my galvanized steel railroad lanterns look new.  When I started, the lantern was rusted here and there.  The rust turned into mud over time in the saniflush.  I was careful to not get any of the saniflush on my skin as it will definitely cause a chemical burn.  I think the Naval Jelly has phosphoric acid in it.  Didn't know about being able to buy the phosphoric acid at Home Depot.  Thats good info.   

[bear]

I used phosphoric acid on my headlight buckets as well as some other grille parts. It doesn't do good on heavy rust but you can soak them in there for a while and just wire wheel them and they will be fine. I kept the buckets in there until I stopped seeing bubbles come up then coated them with a clear.


This is what they looked like after being dipped for the first time. (some went back in for some more time)


And here is what they look like with the clear on them.

[The70RT]

Thought I would bump this up. Some good ideas on this thread 

[hemi-hampton]

I'll have to disagree with one drop of Draino in your eye & your blind in 15 seconds. I got a huge drop in my eye & I was temporarly blind in one eye within 1 second but did not go blind. I will say my eye was swelled about shut for 3 days & red for about 3 weeks. Not fun. I'd strongly suggest full body armor while using this. I use Oxalic Acid to remove rust. Works good. LEON.

[superduperbee]

I'll have to disagree with one drop of Draino in your eye & your blind in 15 seconds. I got a huge drop in my eye & I was temporarly blind in one eye within 1 second but did not go blind. I will say my eye was swelled about shut for 3 days & red for about 3 weeks. Not fun. I'd strongly suggest full body armor while using this. I use Oxalic Acid to remove rust. Works good. LEON.

I saw Leon's eye, not pretty. Wear a face shield!