Great little Home Brew - thanks for posting this

main ingredient was borax washing soda wasnt it?

By now I've mixed up a few gallons of this stuff. I sat these headers in it for a few days and they cleaned up rather nicely. I wasn't able to keep all of the headers in the solution all of the time but it worked well. A little final clean up and paint and these will be back to new.


I've also been working on a turbo housing. Those things are very rusty and the one I'm working on is about 25 years old. It is taking a little bit of work but I like it better than trying to sand blast it and then hope the sand gets all cleaned out and you don't toast a bearing.

The molasses dip does work, and quite well. It does take plenty of time to do the job, and it does stink, but there's probably not a safer cheap way to de-rust big parts like engine blocks, heads, etc.

I had a big plastic horse trough filled with it, got the molasses for free (stole it from my mom, she has horses ), it works better when warm so I wrapped it with pig blankets (like a heavy duty water proof electric blanket also available at the farm supply store) and kept it warm that way in colder months (worked VERY well and not a huge draw on the power bill) but to do big nasty stuff that needs to soak for a month it's best to hold off til the summer heat arrives. Be sure to keep it covered tightly to retain heat and stave off evaporation.

can you post pic of the lemon juice bottle? are you talking about concentrate? or id like to mix up enuff for a 5 gallon bucket to have around
what about parts that cant be submerged? wonder if you could use like a gravity filter off a aquarium and a tray under the part so it runs over the part collects at the bottom then pumped back to the top

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can you post pic of the lemon juice bottle?

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Seriously? Youv'e never seen these in the store? Some are shaped like a lemon, some aren't, all the same stuff.

I use these....seem to grow on trees around here

I got a chance to try it out this weekend and it worked great, although I let it soak for 48 hours just to be sure. It didn’t damage the paint or the seam sealer. I still need to treat the inside with metal prep to protect the bare metal.

If you get a chance you should try it.

Before...



After....

If you are using it (or any other kind of acid) to remove rust in an enclosed area like that deck lid be DARN sure you neutralize it! That acid will stay active and will allow rust to return with a vengance if left active, and a plain old water rinse won't do the trick no matter how much you flush it.

That's correct Scott.

I used a Baking Soda rinse, and I am planning on treating the whole inside with Pixle 20 Rust and metal prep.

Well I had to give it a try and OMG did it work well. 24 hours later and this is what I had.

But do yourself a BIG favor. Don't use an aluminum pan to soak your parts in. In 36 hours you will have a pan with many holes in it and a big mess......don't ask me how I know.

,,,,

...does not do very much to painted parts however. But this could be a good thing. Somebody needs to soak a part that has many inspection marks on it to see how that comes out. In theory it should remove the rust and keep the inspection marks behind. Anybody have a 8 3/4 third member that they could try this on???

The paint will come off it just takes a little longer.


I did a license plate bracket from a '63 330 and it's taken about 3 weeks but the black paint is almost all gone. Seems to come off in sheets/bubble off.

Paint usually stays intact on parts that you don't dip for very long.

I've put lots of parts in my "brew" in the past few weeks and they all come out looking like new!

Troy,

You are seeing the results of what acid does to nearly any metal, that's why they sell it in plastic jugs


It's also why I caution users against using the home brew on delicate or plated items as it will remove the rust first, but the good metal is next, it's just slower acting on good metal. The products I've mentioned before such as Evaporust will give the same rust removing results (yes it costs more than vinigar & lemon juice) without doing ANY harm to the good metal below it, so choose your rust removal products wisely.

*Ever cover your leftover spaghetti with aluminum foil? If the foil is toucing the foil you'l find holes in it the next day!

so How do you neutralize it? anyone?? thanks in advance