Proper rust removal

[rob07]

I would like to ask if anyone knows of a way to remove more heavy surface rust completely.The areas Im most concerned are the inner wings,inner wheel arches and lower sills.I am not stripping the car back to a bare shell so media blasting and chemically dipping are out.I do not want rust converter products either as they are no good,and sand paper or wire brushing even on a drill are not good enough.I have seen a product that seems good Evapo rust, but you need to immerse the rusty item in the liquid for quite a length of time,so it wont work here.I think maybe a stronger acid will work but as im working mainly from underneath its a bit too dangerous.

[Astacus]

Drill based wire brushes aren't really strong enough, you need a heavy duty wire brush on a grinder to really get to grips with rust. I would then follow up with Deox-C gel, which is an acidic product thats you paint on, leave over night and wash off. The acid converts Iron Oxide back to iron. It also contains some additional compounds that provide an inhibitory coating, but its only temporary and needs painting over.

Once rust is in the seams you are really in trouble, because nothing will really get in there. You may need a few treatments of DeoX to get all the rust off, and its best if you rub it with a brush every once in a while too. If the surface is vertical you might want to cover it in cling film to stop it drying out in this weather. It really does work, I have used it on lots of stuff.

NB, sills usually rust out from the inside, so derusting the outside is not going to solve the problem, same for wheel arches

Something I have always wanted to try is a sand blasting attachment for a Karcher washer. they look interesting.

[v8250]

Astacus said:

Something I have always wanted to try is a sand blasting attachment for a Karcher washer. they look interesting.

Where are these available?

OP, in addition to the Bilthamber DEOX and Hydrate 80 products, which work very well, you should give Aquasteel a go. From personal use, it's a much more industrial usage type product that really does what it says on the tin, a genuine converter and primer...see here http://aquasteel.co.uk/

[Astacus]

v8250 said:

Astacus said:

Something I have always wanted to try is a sand blasting attachment for a Karcher washer. they look interesting.

H
Where are these available?

OP, in addition to the Bilthamber DEOX and Hydrate 80 products, which work very well, you should give Aquasteel a go. From personal use, it's a much more industrial usage type product that really does what it says on the tin, a genuine converter and primer...see here http://aquasteel.co.uk/

Available on Amazon . I ve just read some of the reviews and it seems to give quite variable results

[droopsnoot]

Astacus said:

Something I have always wanted to try is a sand blasting attachment for a Karcher washer. they look interesting.

I've wondered about those, I just didn't think that spraying high-pressure water with sand in it was much of a good idea where there could be seams and places it could gather.

From time to time places like Aldi sell a "spot blaster" which can work quite well. The idea is that it comes with a few different shaped nozzles that should press against the workpiece, and gather the media and whatever it removes back into a collection bag, where you can then sieve and re-use it. I found that changing to media other than the stuff that comes with it helped, but it's been quite good for getting rust out of pitted bits of my car. I also got a small sheet of closed-cell foam and used that to help seal between the nozzle and the workpiece, as the nozzle is very hard plastic and way too rigid to seal.

The other thing I bought was a general blasting gun. I then enclosed the section of shell that I wanted to blast by getting some plastic sheet and taping it around the area. I could then gather the "far" end up, stick my arm in and aim the blast gun roughly where I needed to blast. This worked reasonably well, and could have been better had I been more careful about sealing everywhere. The biggest trouble I had was the media clogging on the way into the gun, which led to frequent stops to un-block the pipe.

Various acids can be used to get back to clean steel - I've used Citric to soak items in, and brushed phosphoric acid (in the form of ph Down, a hydroponics product) onto small areas with good effects. I think that the normal Deox C is just packaged citric acid, as I've tried that as well and got similar results to citric, and it looks the same before you mix it with water. I did read that you could simulate the gel products by mixing some wallpaper paste into the citric acid, but I haven't tried it. Kurust Gel was also good, but again quite expensive compared to just buying the acid powder in its plain form.

Edited by droopsnoot on Thursday 25th August 11:47

[rob07]

Thanks for the replys,I will look into the Deox-C gel which sounds good.I have had good but slow results with white vinegar mixed with citric acid.I agree various forms of blasting are good,but as I am not dismantling the car the dust will get everywhere and also in my shed.

[droopsnoot]

rob07 said:

I agree various forms of blasting are good,but as I am not dismantling the car the dust will get everywhere and also in my shed.

That's why I tape the plastic bag around the area and stick my hand and the blast gun in that. It's mainly because I'm too cheap to use the blast media only once, but it does keep the dust down as well.

[Crafty_]

The deox gel is good, I found better results if you agitate it with a brush. Remember you need to cover it with clingfilm or similar to let it do its thing for a while, I usually left stuff for a day before removing excess and then washing down.

[woodytype S]

Plasma cutter.