I’d like to know what everyone does about cleaning nuts and bolts? If you use a rust remover/sandblast/wire wheel, do you coat it with something to prevent it rusting again or do you just put it back on and spray paint it?
I removed the bolts and nuts from my export braces and threw everything in my Eastwood Rust Gel remover bucket and they come out very nice but flash rust quickly again, so is there something I can put on them, or do I install them and paint quickly or just buy new bolts?
I’d avoid painting fasteners if possible. I’ve been taking a gentle cleaning approach with a brass wire brush to knock off the crud and surface rust without removing whatever coating is on them, then soak in a good penetrating oil & wipe with rags as needed. This gives them a nice clean dark look, though I’m not sure how long the penetrating oil will last. Otherwise if you’re stripping them bare and removing the oxide (?) coating, there are ways you ran re-coat them. I haven’t delved into that, but it’s pretty cool, and I know others here have experience with that.
I bought a new Body and Interior kit from AMK and they have been worth every penny. Nothing like putting it back together with brand new and correct fasteners. I would say not to spray paint the fasteners, they look much better clean.
Anybody on here doing the phosphate process at home? I just watched a guy on YouTube doing it with a home roaster and results were impressive.
EvapoRust soak works really good.
I’m using Eastwood’s Gel Rust Dissolver and that stuff is amazing. Just drop your rusted part in there overnight and tomorrow it’s shiny metal. The problem is if you don’t paint it immediately, it will flash rust quickly. That’s fine on parts I’m painting, but what about the parts I’m not painting?
Here’s the Eastwood product I use…
https://www.eastwood.com/rust-remover-eastwood-rust-dissolver.html
I put them in a container with degreaser and let them soak for a couple of hours, to get the crud off
Then into a molasses bath for about a week to get rid of rust
Then rinse and wipe the residue off and any crud that might still remain
and into another container where I give them a liberal coat of WD40 and let them sit (with the lid on) for a couple of days. You need to roll them around in the container to make sure they get a good coating
leonbray, so how long does the WD40 coating keep them from rusting?
I like fluid film over WD-40. Goes on thicker and sticks
Have used the Eastwood stuff, it’s good. I like evaporust because it’s biodegradable.
Paint with clear , SATIN finish keeps them looking like new and won’t rust
If your looking at a full restoration you have a number of steps and concerns. One is the correct bolts for your cars build period and assembly plant which will have specific head markings as well and the original size. You can either restore the originals - if your car still has them or sometimes purchase them from AMK but often this will only provide bolts that will fit and work like originals and often be the right finish but they can often look differently or not be correctly finished for your car.
If your restoring your original bolts and they will clean up well (no pitting or damage) then you can have them replated. If you do them in batches it keeps the cost down a bunch. What guys will often do it to do more (think donor car) than you will need - replate all of them and then choose out the best for each type you need. Each often turns out slightly difference and you don’t want to reuse a new plated bolt that didn’t turn out well just because you needed 9 and you only plated 9.
At the same time you will often have brackets, mounts or other assemblies that will need the same finishes that can be organized in the batch when you have it all plated.
Once you get them home they can be heated (some like chilling them) and covering them in a rust reducing microfilm oil like Boe shield a very popular oil used for this by lots of restorers. Also used as a bike chain lubricant
If you paint them you run the risk (like clear coating suspension or other parts that should be bare unpainted) of trapping moisture below the paint, chipping a edge with wrenches, cracking the finish with age or movement and introducing moisture below the clear that will love it there and start the rust process over again. Been there done that. Repairing clear coated parts is a bigger pain IMHO than touching up an oiled part in my experience
I am sure many are watching this thread as I am. My question would be,
what is the plating process used originally and can it be duplicated in a home garage?
What type of plating was used depends on the part, your asking about, local regulations (some plating is basically illegal to do in different areas, the cost you will need to set up your tanks, process as well as location and how much your time is worth. Not unusual for a car to have six or more different platings used for different parts.
There are some additional platings and dyes that can be used fairly successfully to reproduce the look of illegal or difficult plating practices
Things like blacking, phosphating and reproducing darkened heat treated metals can be done at home without too much fuss other than the disposal of the left over products. Zinc can be done at home and a few have set up those processes. I would NOT suggest doing the zinc dichromate at home at all. You can (some have been doing this) send your zinc and zinc dischromate parts out to a plater then remove the goldish color with the use of vinegar bath from the parts you just want zinced. Can cut the cost down by 50% if their doing barrel plating of the parts
Have done phosphating at home and at shops for years. Some forums have get togethers where they will set up the baths, invite everyone in the areas to plate together on the same day at a location and sometimes will do mailed in parts for a small service fee to cover product costs and food and beverage needs of the guys there as well as postage for the items
Just from my experiences over the years and what others have shared on our sites
Have you ever tried OSPHO, by Skyco?
It is a phosphoric acid compound you lightly brush on a rusted metal surface. I usually will take my Dremel with a small wire brush and knock off the worst, then coat it and let it dry. What I like about it is that it chemically changes the rust from iron oxide ( rust ) to iron phosphate ( black inert compound ).
It also provides you the ability to paint it and if you like nice black hardware, it’s great.
I also use it just to treat rusted areas i am not planning to paint because they will no longer rust where treated and look better black than rust color orange. I will have to post some before and after photos. Being in the NW, rust is always a nemesis we have to deal with. This is the best way I have found to overcome it.
Great info everyone.
Czechmate68, that looks similar to a product Eastwood offers…