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Post by Teachndad on Jul 10, 2019 19:02:53 GMT -8
Hi Friends, I was taking apart some of my Hehr awning windows to my '57 Westerner and found rust on about half of the bolts and nuts. I thought I would try soaking the nuts and bolts in 100% apple cider vinegar inside an empty plastic water bottle for 44 hours. I shook the bottle from time to time over the 44 hours to loosen things up. Before  I poured the nuts and bolts into a filter and rinsed with water and then put on the towel to dry. After  Only a few bolts had some rust left on them. I just took my fingernail and cleared the remaining rust easily. I will be repeating the procedure with another set of nuts and bolts, but that set has a lot more rust than the first set. Cheers, Rod |
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turbodaddy
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17' 1965 Fan "Sunseeker"
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Post by turbodaddy on Jul 10, 2019 19:34:10 GMT -8
I tried something similar, finally it occurred to me that for short money I could replace every screw on the camper with stainless. I live on the seashore where rust is inevitable.
Sometimes, I think keeping everything completely original can be counter productive. I've seen others post about problems with paint on stainless, but mine have held up for almost 5 years. Yes,you may be able to clean them up, but in a short time they will just corrode again. I have to admire your determination though!
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Alaska Shasta
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1964 Shasta
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Post by Alaska Shasta on Jul 10, 2019 21:10:39 GMT -8
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Post by Teachndad on Jul 12, 2019 21:39:08 GMT -8
Hi Friends,
It’s just another way to do something, LOL. I like that TurboDaddy’s use of stainless steel bolts in order to adapt to living by the seashore. Alaska Shasta’s suggestion at buying the palnuts was an idea I had as well. I actually had included it in a recent order for gaskets from VTG in case the soaked nuts and bolts didn’t work out.
I figured it was worth a try. So, much of doing a restoration for the first time is research and the how-to’s. For me, it’s what’s going to give me the best product for the amount of time invested as well as cost in energy expended. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time researching to find the right size bolt or going down to the hardware store searching for the right nut and bolt. For me it was easier to just let them soak and steal my wife’s vinegar and trying it out. Some of the really rusty Palnuts ended up staying black. The purchased palnuts from VTG will compensate for those darkened ones.
Cheers,
Rod
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Post by Teachndad on Jul 15, 2019 5:29:02 GMT -8
Hi Friends,
Update: I have come to the conclusion that this was not a good idea.
The second batch of nuts and bolts had more rust on them and more were just rusty. The bolts cleaned up, but many of the rusted nuts turned black. Too much time to clean off because they are just too tiny. Also, I did some research using up more time on this and found out you should neutralize the vinegar’s acidic reaction with the nuts and bolts by placing them in a mixture of baking soda and water. Then, lets not forget one more final step. A quick soak or drenching with denatured alcohol to remove any moisture that’s left.
So, by the time I got done experimenting and researching and posting this information here, I could have gone down to the hardware store searched around, hopefully found a match and come home with nice new hardware and called it a day.
Mobiltec’s sig line says it all.
"I make mistakes, so you don’t have to.” So, there you go. For this application, this isn't worth the work, IMHO.
Here are all the steps I found on a wood working site if you really want to go for it.
Add a cup salt to a gallon of vinegar or similar ratio in a tub.
Let sit at least 12 hours. Do not place any aluminum into the mixture.
Scrub with Scotch Brite pad
Place in water bath with 1 cup of baking soda to one gallon of water to neutralize the acid in the vinegar and let sit for about 10 minutes.
Pull the pieces out of the neutralizer after and scrub everything with some 0000 steel wool. After this final scrub, wipe it down with a rag soaked in denatured alcohol. The alcohol will wick away any moisture left on the metal so rust doesn’t come back to haunt you.
Rod
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