Questions - Small Item Refinishing - What Did You Do?

[Dan in Pasadena]

Today I stripped one of my doors to drop off at the blaster and then take to the painter this week.

If you've done this you know there are the large window winding mechanisms/hardware, the hinges, and windwing assemblies. But there are also little screws that hold the upper part of the windwing assemblies, little clips/clutch head screws that hold weatherstripping at the curves on the door, and the larger clutch head screws.

I plan to have the winder mechanisms and hinge assemblies blasted when the doors are done but the small stuff is too tiny to use my wire wheel and yet it's still rusty. It's all labeled and stored in ziplock baggies. Did you use one of those Harbor Frieght sonic cleaners, or soak in some kind of cleaner? I want to clean things up as I go and store them for reassembly use later.

[Daze57]

hey dan
on my 57 i just took all the parts like that - and i hold in a pair of vice grips (carefully) and either used a bench grinder set up with a wire wheel or take a steel brush and clean it that way by hand --- tedious ? yep .. but it works ,
good luck and glad your truck is commin along !

[fredos59]

Dan, here's what I have used to clean old carbs and smaller items. Wont work too good on rust but for regular "gunked up" stuff it's great

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...C02180BB6D9DDB

[mr48chev]

Carb cleaner will remove paint if you let it soak for a while.

Someone on the net posted a photo of a bucket of rust remover with a basket in the bucket to soak small parts and tools in that they really thought worked good but I can't find the page right now. I'll look some more as I was interested in it.

[Advanced Design]

Has anyone tried electrolytic rust removal with small parts?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Elec...val-aka-Magic/

[Advanced Design]

Or soaking in molasses....http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=481845

[ETsC10]

I use an industrial grade "evap-o-rust" style converter.

[1project2many]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Has anyone tried electrolytic rust removal with small parts?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Elec...val-aka-Magic/

This method works very well. As I put my '36 Plymouth engine back together this spring I had a small Tupperware sized container on the bench with laundry soda and water and a 10A battery charger connected to an old piece of scrap steel. I'd connect one or two bolts, nuts, or whatever small parts had collected rust to the charger while I was working on the car. I'd use small breaks to swap parts, blow the cleaned parts off with compressed air, spray 'em with WD-40, then put them on the bench to await reassembly. Eventually I even played around with plating parts using a Nickel (there's little nickel in a 5 cent piece). Also very easy.

Another method for the heavily rusted parts was sulfuric acid available as a drain cleaner at one of the big box hardware stores. I had a very small plastic cup with the acid. After a 5-10 minute soak I'd place them in baking soda & water to neutralize the acid, then blow dry & WD-40.

Both methods let me do two jobs at once... cleaning rust and repairing the vehicle. And cleanup was minimal in both cases.

I will use phosphoric acid aka rust converters from time to time but I've noticed that it works best when the rust is very thin. Trying to clean up deep rust with phosphoric acid results in the outside of the rust being converted but nothing happening closer to the steel.

[reinmeister1951]

Citric acid works great and is mild enough that you can put your bare hand into it without any problems. Vinegar works also.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Some good ideas here. I've used the wire wheel on bench grinder plenty of times but it wants to pull the part out of the pliers I use to hold the part and toss it, that gets annoying.

Fredo, nice to hear from you, bud! Anything happening with your truck? I heard about the baking soda mini blaster before here:
http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-o.../soda_blaster/

Any idea if it would clean up the minor dirty-ness an aluminum intake manifold gets after awhile without having to remove it from the car/truck? I've always liked how they look new but wouldn't want to have to remove/replace for media blasting periodically. Anyway, I've never tried it but it looks promising.

As for molasses, electrolysis, etc. those strike me as a PITA to be blunt. Maybe I'm over thinking this but thank you everyone for the ideas!

[tmoble]

http://www.kleanstrip.com/product/phosphoric-prep-etch

available at the usual suspect big box stores. I use it for soaking in a pan with the small tooth-brush looking wire brushes or in a big trigger spray bottle I also get at HD.

surface rust just wipes off, deeper rust I hit with a wire brush or wheel first. Like $20/gal.

[1958Warrior]

I Went to HF and got wire wheels for die grinder, and 4" grinder, and some hand held wire brushes , emory cloth. Cleaned all the guts of the doors with wire wheels/brushes, scotch brite ect. Replaced all the hardware I could with new ,Replaced the rollers, did not reuse the PITA clutch head screws.
Soaked the small parts in KBS rust blast ,leaves a zinc phosphate coating on the parts . I primed and rattle canned every thing.
Oh and drank lots of beer (as always)

When you go to replace the vent window rubber , I would NOT use LMC stuff, mine started falling apart after 1year , its still soft but is cracking splitting ,plain junk, I bought some from soft seal to replace it .I have not done it yet its a PITA job.

[roger55]

I blast them in my cabinet, blow them off really good and paint with aluminum paint. (no primer).

I've been using the Duplicolor engine enamel with ceramic. Even though these parts aren't subject to heat, I have found this paint to be a better quality than others for stuff like this.

If you want the parts to look a little more original, barely hit it with a scotchbrite or 1000 sandpaper. Makes it hard to tell the difference when comparing to a zinc plated part.

Just did my original hood hinges that way but I didn't scuff them:

[Dan in Pasadena]

Tmoble, I THINK I already have some of that stuff from Home Cheapo but under a different manufacturer's name. If I use that on the tiny screws, clips, etc do I have to spray paint them afterward or is the coatings they come out with enough to protect them?

Warrior & Roger, when I drop my door shells & door panels off with the blaster I can have them blast the window winding mechanisms too but will that destroy the rollers? If so, where can I buy replacements and are they a PITA to install? I MAY eventually go with power windows but right now I want the option of using nicely working, well lubricated manual windows.

Roger, Outstanding job on hinges. I did mine a couple years ago using the wire wheel on a bench grinder and sprayed Rustoleum on them. They came out great but I'm sure not as original appearing as yours are.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Here's what my hinges looked like before ire finished them:


I scraped the big globs of grease off, used degreaser and wire wheeled it then sprayed it with Rustoleum satin black. For rattle can work I think it came out good. But when it comes time to reassemble my truck after paint I'll redo these with automotive grade paint.

[1958Warrior]

If I remember right the rivet stuck out a little and was mushroomed by what looked like a chiseled X , just had to grind off the mushroomed part sticking out and use a punch to drive the rivet out. drive the new rivet in with the roller on it , and use a chisel to X mushroom it on the back side .
I got mine off Ebay $8 for all 4 free shipping :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/58-59-60-61-...aa1294&vxp=mtr

LMC wants $3 ea plus shipping#4

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/full.aspx?Page=19

[yossarian19]

I use a small jar (we buy peanut butter that comes in glass, so I have jars. So many jars...) and throw a handful of screws in there. Add laquer thinner (faster) or white vinegar (cheaper) until it just covers the hardware. Swirl it around, wait a while, etc. It will eat the rust off of the screws when it's used up, it's just vinegar & rust. Down the drain it goes.

[roger55]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Roger, Outstanding job on hinges. I did mine a couple years ago using the wire wheel on a bench grinder and sprayed Rustoleum on them. They came out great but I'm sure not as original appearing as yours are.

Thanks.
Try some of that Duplicolor ceramic engine enamel when you get a chance. I used to use Krylon but it's gone downhill and the Duplicolor is better than that ever was.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Roger, I will go looking for some at my local Pep Boys.

Warrior,
It took me a minute to figure out you were talking about replacing the plastic window rollers. For some reason I thought we'd switched to talking about something else. Good to know they're readily available and I don't need to be too concerned if they get eaten up in sandblasting. I think I'll shoot the winding mechanisms with the ceramic paint Roger is recommending in silver I guess. In the past I've always used white molybdenum grease to lube things like this.

[Clay54]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

I use a small jar (we buy peanut butter that comes in glass, so I have jars. So many jars...) and throw a handful of screws in there. Add laquer thinner (faster) or white vinegar (cheaper) until it just covers the hardware. Swirl it around, wait a while, etc. It will eat the rust off of the screws when it's used up, it's just vinegar & rust. Down the drain it goes.

My jars are plastic and I used the cheap stuff (vinegar). I left the bolts, nuts, washers, screws and the bracket off the end of the front fender brace off my '54 AD truck in the vinegar for about a week. Actually I forgot about it. After dumping the mess down the drain, I blow dried with air. Looking at the first picture showing the bracket at the top and nuts and bolts on the left with screws and washers on the right you can see the screws are darker than the bolts and the reason for that is I did nothing to the nuts, bolts and bracket but I soaked a red rag with WD-40 and wrapped the screws in it and they have been there for several months. The nuts and bolts have been in a jar, unwrapped, the same amount of time. Looks like some surface rust may be on the bracket and I buffed part of it with a wire wheel this afternoon.

This picture shows how the bolt head looks on the fender that has not been removed as of today.

Looking at the bolts in the first picture and compared to the bolt head in the second picture it is an obvious improvement using the cheap stuff. In my opinion, the disadvantage of using vinegar, it stinks. Other than that, it works great. Clay

[Old Crow]

We were using washing soda and the electrolysis method to clean a gas tank. It cleaned the inside of that tank clear through to the outside air :-(

[ETsC10]

One tip, if you use the acidic bath method (Vinegar, citric acid, etc), is that when it's cold, keep the bath at 70 degrees or higher for fastest results. I use an old aquarium heater (thrift store $2) for the purpose.

[roger55]

The best rust disolver I've found is this milkstone remover product from Tractor Supply.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pro...id-rinse-1-gal
Mix it 1 to 10 with water and things just need to set overnight in it. A little faster with 1 part to 5 parts water.

[tmoble]

I'll bet that milkstone remover stuff is about the same as the prep and etch from HD. Starting to look to me like about all the usual phosphoric acid based stuff is similar.

I know that prep and etch stuff is killer on surface rust, wipes off like dirt.

[FirstNation]

A wire wheel and Phosphoric acid for all parts large and small. The larger pieces I wipe down several times and let set overnight then rinse and wash with soap and water. For the smaller parts I have a 5 gallon pail and I suspend them in there with a piece of coat hanger and check them now and then till they're done, wash and rinse..