The Dreded Rust

[colin400four]

Rust, It gets us all (our bikes that is ) in one shape or another. As I'm new to restoring, I have been investigating all sorts of rust removers.

I have had great results with dry acid salts made into a pickle, but I thought that I would investigte more.
There seems to be an endless aray of rust removers..... some dangerous, Hydrochloric Acid ( Brick Cleaner) some VERY dangerous, Sulphuric Acid ( drain cleaner or battery acid ) and others that are bio degradeable.........

This Leads me to good old vinegar.

I realise that this must be old hat to our more Knowledgeable Members but I was Browsing the internet and came across a site where large parts of a cars drive shaft were stripped of years of rust and gunk with nothing more than a 24hr soak in Tescos value Malt Vinegar................. Never I thought. Must be special effects or something.

So,
I had a go and was amazed with the results, Just soaked over night, then cleaned with a wire brush on a dremmel and finished with a small scotch brite dolly.

Check out the pics...................

[colin400four]

and these...........

[colin400four]

and there's more .......

[UK Pete]

WOW do you think it will de rust the inside of a tank?
Pete

[SteveD CB500K0]

Yes.

It is only an acid.

The trick is stopping the bare metal from rusting again!

[colin400four]

And cleanig all the crap out of the tank !!

[matthewmosse]

Value cola also works, must remember to test the ph and cost / litre and see which is best value!

[UK Pete]

Yes.

It is only an acid.

The trick is stopping the bare metal from rusting again!

So what is the trick then?
pete

[K2-K6]

That's a good point what can you coat it with? some older car tanks were painted on the inside so there must be something that would suit.

Can you still use the vinegar on your chips?

I read somewhere the other day about wrapping the fuel tank in foam, putting fine gravel inside then leaving to rotate while sucured in a cement mixer to clean the inside (was it on this forum). So if you add vinegar then a thorough clean! I geuss it's only like a gentle shot blast I suppose.

On another weird note. Worked with an old guy years ago who swore by chewing gum to stop a leak in rusting fuel tanks as a get you home fix and it does work!

[matthewmosse]

For the inside of the tank use petseal or similar product that's actually desighned to be inpevious to petrol fumes etc, you are basically soaking it in solvent. I like the idea of using a cement mixer btw, will adopt it next year if time permits

[florence]

Keep putting petrol in, that seems to keep the rust at bay.

My CB350 K4 was standing for fifteen years while I tried to find a replacement crankshaft.  During that time I used the tank as a handy receptacle for any old oil, paraffin or old petrol I had used for cleaning things.  I just chucked it in whenever I needed to throw such stuff away.  After fifteen years the tank was nearly full of oily petrolly parafinny cr@p which I simply poured out, rinsed with clean petrol and, hey presto, a lovely rust free tank.

[Spitfire]

That's what I do when I lay the bike up for the nasty winter weather, fill the tank up, it sat in my garage for 10 years like that and so far looks good.

Cheers

Den

[the-chauffeur]

Like the vinegar/coke idea.  And IIRC, ketchup can be used like gel for the same effect.

As an alternative, can I recommend http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_186271_langId_-1_categoryId_165594?  Nope, no personal affiliation or connection - it just worked well for me.

I've just had the tank on the '69 SL350 I bought earlier this year resprayed, but stupidly didn't look to closely inside before sending it away.  When I got it back, the exterior looked fantastic, but it was then that I discovered the insides were covered with a layer of rust.  No particularly deep penetration - the tank stood for a l-o-n-g time with some very nasty smelling fuel in it - but there was an ugly layer of brown stuff on much of the insides.

I thought about using the stones/shingle/beads/shot and cement mixer approach, but wasn't particularly convinced I'd get everything I put in out again (the inner spine of the tank is very high - much higher than any other Honda twin I've seen).  So I got hold of a couple of 1ft long lengths of reasonably small link chain and put them in with distilled water.  Once I'd shaken it all up a lot, I drained the water and used a magnet on a stick to get the chains back out.  I thought about using the electrolysis methods I've read about, but decided to try a less radical approach first off. 

So I bought me some of this rust remover stuff and diluted a litre of it with nine of water into the tank . . . fortunately the tank has a 10l capacity, so it's not exactly a tricky measurement.  Following the comments on the Halfords site, I didn't really have particularly high hopes and left the mix in the tank - giving it the occasional stir - for about three days. Well, it worked; without any great effort on my part, we were back to bare metal.  Flushed everything out with tap water, then distilled, then petrol/2-stroke oil mix to coat the insides (it's not going to be used for about a month or so) and it's stayed good for the last few weeks despite having been sat in the shed.  And as it says, it's paintwork safe.

I've since found it also cleans up chrome surprisingly well, although I'm a little reluctant to leave anything that isn't bare metal in solution for more than a day or so, just in case.  I'm now running various fasteners and other bits through it.  Obviously it's not going to help with real bad rot, but as long as you're patient - and have got containers big enough to soak parts in, it seems to do a pretty good job on most metalwork.

Hope that helps.

[rigwit]

Smash a race off a bearing,  pick up all balls get parrafine or deisel add some oil put in tank n do the rumba. youl be surprised and disgusted at what will come out..................

[UK Pete]

As i write this my k1 tank is spinning around in my mixer,  a few scoops of pea shingle in the tank, i will let you know how it comes out
Pete