Reconditioning bolts

I like putting them in an electric drill and spinning them against the wire wheel on my bench grinder...they get a nice "burnished" look...then you can use as-is or blacken or paint or whatever... Of course, the threads then have to be cleaned and unless you have a real big chuck, you'll have to do it by hand...If your using the wire wheel on, say, four bolts, one of them will inevitably fly across the shop...that's when the goggles come in real handy!

Evaporust works great.

we used a tumbler with sand. let it sit over night and they come out looking good.

to blacken the hardware, use machinest tool black, $50 bottle will do all the hardware on the car.

Were can you get machinists tool black?

Wild_RT, did you do the parts in your pic with the tool blackening kit?

The link you provided says the blackening kit is for indoor use. How does this stuff hold up on cars?

hood release

I picked up a tumber and green triangle media from Harbor Freight, then some Rust Away, and then a phosphate kit from Eastwood. I have about a 100 bucks into this so I do know after paying 36 bucks today for some nuts and bolts that this is worth doing when theres spare time. The bolt reference manual is something extra but well worth having if you have a lot of hardware to identify. Also you can go to amk.com for bolt and nut pics of unidentified nuts and Bolts.

Pour a few inches of the rust away into tumber.
Pour entire contents of green triangle media into tumber. HF stocks therese.
Add bolts and hardware. 1-2 1/2 lbs. max hardware weight.
Tighten lid and shake, rattle for about 3-4 hours.

Take out bolts nuts, hardware and wash off.
Inspect. Ones with rust go back and do a little more.
Wash with fresh water.
Put on cookie sheet and dry at 180 for 15 minutes.
Take selected clean bolts and harware and put into green solution first.
If all at once, leave them in longer. Watch them turn black.
When they're really black, pull em out using tongs. Never use bare hands into chemicals.
Lay onto paper towels for about a half hour. Lightly wipe off dirty or uneven areas off with a small edge of paper towel. Lightly wipe off excess fluid on edges.

Now its time to seal them using the gold colored phosphate sealer.
Leave them in for 10-15 minutes if doing a batch all at once.
Take out with tongs and lay on paper towels.
Roll up parts in the paper towel covered and lay in a well ventilated area..outside if possible.
This lets the sealer grab on and dry onto them. I wait 24-48 hours before I feel they are really sealed.
Results...Looks just like you bought 50 bucks worth of new hardware.


I don't recommend sand blasting original OEM bolts and hardware. You may remove the markings that help identify where they belong on the vehicle. Remember to always use rubber gloves, goggles and tongs when dealing with these chemicals. It is re usable so pour it back into the original container if you took any out.

http://www.eastwood.com/metal-blackening-kit-with-diamond-clear.html

I use the green piramides in a vibrator with water, no chemicals. Works great removes all rust.

RANDY & GARY,
Thank you!

for the guys tumbling their nuts. once the rust is removed the corrosion has left pitting behind, no?
what do you do about that? Im going with an AMK kit and will reuse original hardware where needed if its usable.

Living in California we have pit free nuts....

here are restored underhood nuts, bolts and latches.

I have walnut shells crushed, I used these with a few bolts and nuts in a vibrator tumbler over night and it did next to nothing. should I have added water or some other chemical to the shells first? Thanks

Challenger1,
the pic of the rusty hardware looks like thet were pretty bad. did you have pitting issues? and how bad was it after the clean up treatment?

Not much pitting, it's all the same hardware in both pictures. You can see some of the black oxide finsih? still on them. I don't like to let it run for days and wear off the entire finish because I only have used paint so far to protect. some items I don't refinish either. Oil them up and install. That's as clean as I get them, there wet in that picture dry em(blow dry, although I like the oven idea) and paint the heads.

BTW I have used it to strip paint off of some real old detailed brass hinges and door pulls. It worked great and never hurt the hardware at all. Looked brand new every nook and cranny. Used the same piramids and vibrator. Very handy.