After the second time reading through this string and a third time after signing up so I could comment, I am ready to do a lot more reading about rust removal, polishing and rechroming.

Bought a quadricycle last year. Two months later the rims are rusted. Retailer said the rims were steel and need to be kept oiled if the vehicle is stored outside. Well thanks for the heads-up after the fact! Anyhow, I have some chrome parts and non-chromed parts to be freed from their iron oxide cages.

Finally found powdered Oxalic Acid at Sherwin-Williams that had to be special ordered at $7/lb. Ordered a 4lb container. Still waiting on the shipment. Found a can of Bartender’s Friend at Lowes but it did not list the ingredients. All wood bleaches toilet scrubs ZEP products and other cleaners did not list the ingredients either. I know chemical formulas change from time to time and since the manufacturers seem to think their “stuff” is proprietary, I didn’t buy any until I found it in the paint shop. I know some Oxalic Acid can be found at half the price as annotated in this string and I will buy it that way if this trial size pans out.

Picked up an under the bed storage bin from Lowe’s. It’s 19.5” wide, just shy of my 20” rims dimension. Had a tough time finding LPS-3 and aluminum polish too. Finally found both in a motorcycle shop.

I will try to get plenty of before and after pictures posted. Still need to do plenty of reading on polishing and chroming or other alternatives.

Thanks for this string, that I stumbled upon, in the search for rust removal.

Here are products containing Oxalic Acid and Sulfamic acid for reference and to help people find the stuff in its everyday form:

Oxalic Acid
http://www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/c...amp;prodcat=all

Sulfamic Acid
http://www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/c...amp;prodcat=all

I found some prep and primer for rusted and new metal. It is made by JASCO and is a full quart liquid. Contains Phosphoric Acid, Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether, and Potassium Dichromate. I thought I might use this instead of the LPS-3 in the spray can. Thought I might could get 100% coverage inside any tubular steel instead of hoping for complete coverage with the LPS-3 spray.

Any experience out there? Am I cycling down the wrong road?

Got a closer look at the 21oz can of Bar Keepers Friend. Says that it does indeed have Oxalic Acid but not the percentage.


Thanks for the info, ringer. I'm supposing that the cooling system cleaner is the better buy because of it being 90% and up concentration, and you can control the dilution rate.

There are links in the thread to the online chemistry store. Cheap. Online. Click to pay and it comes to your door.

OK, I feel like driving the bus into the ditch and going off road for a while!

So, there I was....

Having a beer (or 6), with my VBMX team mate, and lifelong friend. And my friend says. " I know we've talked about this before (I've offered many times over the last 15 years) , and it's all been cool, but.... My mom said something the other day, and I think it's time we dealt with the (ours, his and mine you see) beer can collection, and got it out of my Mom's basement."

WHAT? ... Are you kidding me!? It's only been.... 30 years, what's her problem!? Dude, your Mom sucks! Tell her like, maybe, at least 10 more years..... Okay 15 more.... but no less than that! lol !


Sooooooo. Arg...

Okay, let's go deal with it. He says, "I don't think you know just how much we have there, do you...??" Bah, I do eBay all the time, it won't be THAT bad.

D'oh!!!

OK, here is a few of the A's and a few of the B's (Alphabetical order and all, you know) (the rows of THAT section alone go about 6 more feet to the right, lmao)



I used up about 40 photos just doing the main collection. And this photo was cropped down to make it smaller!

I said, "This isn't that bad". He said, behind there.... all those cases... those are our doubles. All those under there (Are those all full, and they go all the way back under there? Yes) those are all our ..... And those are all our.... And these over here are our....

Ruh, roh! There is a LOT of stuff here to deal with.... "I told ya so."

And wow, here is an old bottle of Real Lemon Lemon juice (citric acid) , and here is an old box of Sour Salt (citric acid powder/pellets), and there should be an old jar of naval jelly here somewhere too....lol. This is all the stuff we used to use for removing rust, before my grandfather told us to try Oxalic Acid. HA! lol What else is here? (You don't even want to know what all we found down there! lol. )

So, we proceeded to FILL my "05 Ford Exploder (the later ones are bigger, lol) FULL to the TOP, WITH the seats folded down of course, with the main collection. Then we filled his car... and we didn't even touch 16 ouncers, or ...., or...., or....

I have NO IDEA how we are going to deal with this! lol. The plan is to get together, and start drinking Fat Tires (best beer ever), and sorting them into an "A" pile of the best ones, a B Pile and a C pile. From there, we still don't know what we are going to do. lol.

Any suggestions? Ha!

So during all of this, we came across a (one of many) box with stuff that we never dealt with BITD. Cans that were really rusty, and had dents, but we knew were realllly old, so we kept them. He pulled one out, and I couldn't tell what it was through all the rust. He knew. It was a Country Club Malt Liqour, but a really old version of it. He said that he always wished we would have fixed this one so he could see what it looked like, because he remembered it was an "unlisted" can in the collector's books.,

So, last night, guess what I did??? lol. I filled the sink with some water, and dumped in some OA, and shook out the 1/2 a pound of dirt and dried worms and stuff (just like old times! lol) and I grabbed a few more out of the scrap box at random, and decided to see if the OA still worked a charm on beer cans, and remind myself of how this whole thread got started. Come full circle, if you please.

Well. I am happy to report, that it still works! And I almost forgot about them in there. lol.



And now you can read that it is 'Strong" beer on the top. You can read that it is Keg Lined, and says, "Extra Dry, or Extra Light, or Extra Refreshing" around the bottom ... I'll take the extra refreshing please!



Out of pure habbit now, I caught myself carefully brushing away stuff, and picking at blemishes, and then I slammed on the brakes and said "Whoaaaa", what the heck am I doing here? We are talking about crushing these, not starting to collect and restore them! So, I yanked them out, rinsed the rest of the worms our of them, and now it awaits his approval after waiting 30 years to see what it looked like! Ta Da! Albeit, a little under cooked, for once, I'm not finishing what I started, lol, it's as good as it's going to get, just knowing it would get better with more dip, is enough for me on this one!

So, that's my story for the day. It's my story, and I can tell it any way I like!

Now, what are we going to do with all these cans? .. Hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of them... ~~~~sigh~~~~

The thread is now "Full Circle" ...

I think that Gold Budweiser can needs some re-work. Any volunteers? Looks refreshing doesn't it! Just pick up that heavy steel can, get out your can opener, punch some holes in the top of it, and taste that beautiful steel beer can flavor! MMMMM..... Yummy!

Cheers.

Hope you are not considering locking this string out, now that you have brought it full circle. Speaking for all the newbies here, I would like to post my progress in words and pictures on this string of a couple of bikes I want to restore.

Just gathering all I need to get started and would like to have some direction from time to time without having to reread the entire string to find the bit of information I'm lacking.

It can't be said to often. This is a great string.

Made up an Oxalic acid bath last night. Eight gallons water to one pound acid crystals (2oz/gal). That’s enough water in the under-the-bed storage box to just cover the wheel rim, spokes, and hub fully assembled. I did however remove the wheel and rubber components. Also put in the bath, three badly rusted lawnmower blades as a comparison test. Took pics, of course. The rim is badly rusted with a little rusting on the bearings in the hub, but the spokes are very shiny. They look brand new.

Opened up the bath this morning and was very pleased to see yellow caking all over the parts. Cleaned and rinsed them off with the white scotchbrite. Don’t see any rust on the bicycle parts although the spokes are dulled down and splotchy (I wasn’t expecting that). Disassembled the rim from the hub and put the parts back in the bath.

I’m now concerned that the spokes and adjustment nipples might be aluminum instead of steel. If they were chromed steel without a spot of rust then they should have come out of the bath nice and shiny since (according to this string) Oxalic acid does not attack chrome. If they were just shiny steel, like the rims, they would have rusted along with the rims.

Going to have to call the manufacturer for information. Does this site have a string on spokes?

Going to try to figure out how to post some pics of my progress. Here is a before shot of the wheel and a test with mower blades.





Wheel and mower blades soaked overnight. I have the mower blades after picture but don't know where the wheel after picture ran off to.

Alrighty then! Adding the pictures was easier than I thought.

Getting going with the first grind using a B&D cyclone sander. It's a mouse type looking sander. Found out that the sidewall of the rims are not flat. One side is bowed out a little and the other side is dished in a little. Going to take a lot of sanding with 80 grit to smooth them out. You can see in the first picture the dished in feature. Also you can see how well the Oxalic acid cleaned up the rim.



Spent a whole day sanding at 80 grit. Went through at least 4 sanding pads. I can use them to glue on finer grit pads. Here is the after 80 grit picture.



I went to an intermediate step of 120 grit because I do not have a wheel sander and the rim is just not shaped well for a wheel sander. After pic of 120 grit.



Stepping on down to 220 grit sanding. In the next pic is the sanding result and a look at the 220 paper glued onto the 80 grit pad. Marked as such so I don't get old timers disease.



Just finished the 320 sand tonight. Rim is starting to pick up the reflection of the cleaning rag.



Next pic is of the 320 sanding pads but the rim is still in 220 condition. Just wanted to give another look at the modified sanding pads. Will use the same glue procedure for the 400 and 600 sandpapers.

Hope this turns out well. It is my first attempt, ever. And there are 3 more rims to bring from rust to shine.



Still need to deal with the hub and spokes but plenty of sanding and buffing to the rim before I go there.

Got a good close up inspection of all that sanding I did yesterday and I am finding more pitting around the spoke hole area. Guess that 320 grit is starting to bring out detail that I thought was sanded away, including the slightly concave surface of the rim sidewall.

Decided to start again with the 80 grit and work my way back to the 320 grit. The grit scratches of the 80 grit makes the perceived concave flaw disappear. Maybe it is an optical conclusion. We'll see, once it's worked back out to 320 grit.

Not to bore you with any re-sanding pictures, I thought I would give you a look at my project. Sorry, it's not a BMX, but neither are the beer cans. It is a Rhodes Car; a semi-recumbent quadricycle. I bought it new last year and it set out in the weather and now I have a lump of rusted parts because a lot of it is steel without the benefit of chrome. I didn't know! IT'S ME! I just assumed metal bike parts are chromed anymore. Caveat Emptor I guess! At any rate, here is my pet project:

A look at the quad from the front and back with the wheel I'm restoring, missing. Handlebar has some rust spotting but not nearly as bad as the rims.




The other front wheel and a rear wheel.




Next is the seat, crank, and gearing. Two six-speed clusters giving it 36 possibilities.

Looks like the two pictures of the full quadricycle did not post. I'll try again:





You see it all except for the canvas top. You can see the supports going up to hold it in place.

I don't know why the pictures aren't coming up. The link is in the post but nothing's happening. Guess you'll just have to wait until I get some different pictures posted. I'm new at this.

Just finished sanding with the 400 grit. Think I'm starting to get aroused and I'm not even to the polishing stage.



Glad I went back over and re-sanded everything. It knocked out a lot of the little pits that I didn't see the first time around.

Four and six hundred grit sanding is done. Started a test polish area which I worked through six waxings. I'm not liking the results. It's not the mirror finish I had in my minds eye. Decided to use some red rouge polish to help the finish along.

Now that I'm in the polish stage, maybe I should slip the rest of my results into the polishing string.

I'm not happy again! The pits are still not gone!

Although using rouge polish made the shine much brighter, it also brought out the pits definition. It is apparent that my sanding style lacks something.

After analysis and thought I have come up with another tack. I am using a mouse style vibration sander. It works well with the (now flat) sidewalls of the rim because of the flat surface of the sander. The rim area that attaches to the spokes, however is not flat and I find that the edges of the vibration sander is all that makes contact with the rim. I need a new tool that will help me sand. And as Ted has noted, a flat sander for flat surfaces and non-flat for contoured surfaces.

Not exactly sure when the idea fell out of my head but I decided to buy a flexible styrene foam rod. Found one at Walmoms in the toy section for $2. It is five foot long and just big enough around that my hand will not completely close around the diameter. I plan on cutting it in four sections and glue a sheet of sandpaper around each section. That will give me a sanding rod that has give and is non-flat. Each sanding rod will have about a three inch handle hold which is non sandpapered. The flex in the foam rod will allow the sandpaper to move into the non standard contoured surfaces which hold the pits I'm trying to sand out. Actually it should be noted that the pits are never sanded away. It is the other surface of the metal that is sanded down to the level of the bottom of the pits. So the smaller the pits get the larger amount of other surface of the metal will need to be removed to make the pits disappear.

I'll get some pics posted of the sanding rods. They remind me of the table sanding post in a woodworking shop that spins while moving up and down. Unfortunately this is a hand sander and the third time I have gone back to the coarser sandpaper to rework the rim. I didn't make an 80 grit rod but might have to make one anyhow once I finally get started on a second rim. So there are 150, 220, 320, and 400 grit rods. Looks like I will need to buy another flexible styrene foam rod so I can make the 80 and 600 grit rods.

The rim, although it is indeed circular, also has a contoured surface because of when the nipples were tightened on the spokes to true up the rim when it was factory assembled which left flair points on the rim at the nipple holes.

I need to get out of this string and into the polishing string. The Oxalic acid worked great and is waiting outside for me to finish restoring this rim so I can get busy on the second rusted rim.

GOOD STUFF BROTHER,ON THE WAY TO HOME DEPOT.LATER........................

Dude where did you get that tub?

Had to order it from a specialty storage/food hygiene supply company. Not cheap but very heavy duty and as big as I should ever need.

Here's some pics of my recently acquired absolute holy grail frame - a May '82 "Quicksilver Helium" - yes the one with helium in the toptube and downtube.

She's pretty rusty and I expect I'll probably have to rechrome her - but I'm going to have a go at cleaning her up without the rechrome first. Here's some detail shots and one of her in brewing in the Oxalic Acid. More to come soon...

Well 24 hours later and what an improvement. Still will be rechroming but the difference is marked!

i have some mongoose pro class wheels can i dip these

hi all new to site, 1st time poster woohooo lol, well anyways long story short i found my old powerlite p61 almost in mint cond in parents basement and it brought back memeories now i want to ride/restore again at 31 lol <slaps head> wish i never found it lol ,only the drop outs have surface rust and some other minor spots, but i cant get the gt pedals off, the 1s with bear trap style, i got the cages of, but i cant release the pedal or the crank cause who ever put this together was a phucnut and didnt anti lock it, oh wait i put it together, lets forgt that part ^^ anyways i was wondering what aluminium actually looked like after the bath, the whole bike is chrome, could only get it that way, ive striped the bike down to pieces the only thing i cant get off is the cranks and pedals /cry i even tried a breaker bar with a torque wrench W T H? lol soooo anyway i was wondering if some1 could post the kaka pictures of what aluminum looks like after the bath, and if not can i just polish the crap out of the alum after the bath,<aka aggresive polish> they arent shiney alum kinda a hazy normal looking alum

oh b4 the try this try that, ive sprayed everything i can on the nuts bolts and innards to release the bolts/lugs and to no avail thats why im hoping the bath works, its looks fantastic when done , just AWE at the results, waaaaaay better than scrubbing and mucking the frame up any more that has to be and if it doesnt work next step is a hacksaw lol but i would really like to keep it all original <ima geek like that>

also if i want to refresh a bike say like a mongoose decade can i just toss the whole bike in for like a couple of hours instead of all night, from what ive seen it doesnt eat paint or stickers and really the only thing wrong with my decade is paint scrapes been indoors its whole life but again has obvious alum everywhere

well anyway sorry for long post but it was kind of a hey im new here and i need help post lol this seems like 1 of the best sites ive found out there, lots of really really good info and peeps from what ive seen so far, enough to sign up anyway hehe + i hope people are still reading this lol other wise i guess ill have to just jump in and dunk her lol anyway time to go home ill check back later , now begins the hunt to find the stuff gonna check lowes or ace so psyched to try this lol

Hello All,
I am new to your community today and was ONLY here to reply in hopes to buy Super7x's and then I found myself three hours to four later after reading ALL of this thread about rust removal.I am a PRO aluminum polisher and new "collector/rider"of vintage BMX.Just so happens I have spent countless hours trying to get this 93 GT pro series frame to be PERFECT,but has VERY small specks in the chrome.I gave up after hours of chrome polishing,mineral spiriting,blue magic "ing" and said white powder and new stickers....UNTIL I READ THIS....THANK YOU SO MUCH... Now..anyone got those Araya Super7x's??? Email is johnsoligo@yahoo.com

Waiting is sooo hard, it's like waiting for Christmas morning. Luckily I am leaving for the day. When I am done I put what kind of anti-rust on it, you said LPSomething (I plan to go back and look it up) but where do I find it and how do I coat the inside?

Ted, I have a bunch of old beer cans at my Mom's house from bitd when I used to collect them! I can't wait to get some OA and give it a try on those cans...thanks for doing the experimenting for me!

Hi here is a link you may want to look over before you start. I'm gonna do mine and thought i'd research it's chemical spech's first. Hope it helps.,Sincerly, Brandon. http://www.answers.com/topic/oxalic-acids

Hi here is a link you may want to look over before you start. I'm gonna do mine and thought i'd research it's chemical spech's first. Hope it helps.,Sincerly, Brandon. http://www.answers.com/topic/oxalic-acids

Commercial timber deck cleaners are generally a 10% solution (much stonger than we use) and the instructions are to just hose it off the deck into your yard.

Who knew....? So...can you wrap a bike in rhubarb leaves and remove rust? There's an experiment for someone [else]!!!

Not BMX specific, but:

Just wanted to post a before and after of some skewers I just pulled out of an oxalic bath. They aren't "brand new" some pitting still, but much much nicer:

Before:


After:

wow thanks for the help

I prefer Mothers Chrome Polish

I started the process today. I left a 24" Champion in the garage too close to some pool chemicals. I'm experimenting with the rear dropouts. I'll start with some iPhone pics. Hi-res pics to follow...
The Damage:

The Soaking:

Progress (about two hours of soak and a quick dusting with a toothbrush):

Can I leave it in the bath too long? What happens if I fall asleep and leave it overnight? I made what I would consider to be a relatively weak solution.

Yeah you can leave it in too long. I left an old set of thrashed TRX forks in for several months as an experiment and the threads were partly eaten away - I think basically the item continued to rust while under water - and the OA continued to eat that rust in the mixture, eventually removing a small amount of material.

I usually only need to leave my stuff in for between 12 - 24 hours to get rid of all rust and have never had a problem at that duration. I use an old toothbrush every few hours to loosen up the surface to get at fresh rust.

Looking forward to seeing how you go. Sweet frame!

Cheers Kurt

Here is the dropout after about 17 hours. There are still two spots that seem pretty thick with rust (albeit small ones).



Is there any point in continuing to soak it? Or, are these spots just too much for the OA bath?

Thanks for your input, Kurt. I certainly hadn't thought about leaving it (or anything) in a vat of acid for months! YIKES!

(sorry for the low-res iPhone pics...)

Looks great! Well done. OA will eventually remove the spots. Give it another day and keep removing the top surface of rust with a toothbrush or similar.

Yes, it is an acid - but very mild in the scheme of things. Remember Lemon Juice and Vinegar are both technically acids too!

OK. I put it back in the bath and will revisit it in the morning to brush off some more rust (hopefully). Will post more pics (I actually do have hi-res pics, but I keep forgetting my USB tether at the office. Duh.)

I'm two days in now (about 44 hours). I've removed the frame several times to brush and wipe. My intention was to remove it for good today after work since I'm getting nervous about my frame sitting in the acid for so long. However, the two remaining spots were significantly better when I checked. I'm going to leave it in at least overnight again.

~~~nervous~~~

Seriously, relax! She'll be fine!

Well, after over four days almost all the rust is gone. There are two tiny spots that remain. I bailed on the project before completion because I wasn't comfortable leaving the frame in the OA any longer. That said, there are small rust spots all over this particular Champion. It has been my Rider for well over a decade. I have an entire collection of Champions that could be used for future projects such as show bikes or whatever. Because of this, I'm fine with the results I have at this point.

Thanks to Ted and Kurt and all who have contributed to this thread (and this site in general). The OA Treatment works. Here is the final iPhone pic of the dropout. It's a bit blurry, but you can see the results. I will get around to posting the hi-res pics someday (if anyone is interested).

Cheers!

Very nice! Lovely frame. Post pics once you put her back together. Would love to see them.

I can't find WHITE Scotch-brite pads ANYWHERE. Only the big green ones, and now there are brownish-looking Greener Clean Natural Fiber Non-Scratch pads and sponges, plus the pink Delicate use pad/sponge and the blue non-scratch pad and pad/sponge. Are you referring to the Easy Eraser? That is the only white pad that Scotch-brite makes, according to their web site. If so, that is similar to the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I can get those.

I think the White ones are considered sythetic wool pads.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#44225A81

Such a great thread, with so much information for 1st timers like me. Can anyone tell me what a GT mallet stem is made of? I have an old one that looks like it has been painted 2x. (once white and once black) I need to strip off the remaining paint and then want to give it an OA bath. I hope someone can verify that the bath is safe on my part, including the stem bolt and SR stamped tube? Thanks in advance

The head of the stem is Aluminium and can't be dipped in OA. Strip the paint off using paintstripper and re-paint it or polish it up.

Hi,I am trying to restore my 81 mongoose,have been reading through your tips on cleaning up rust with Oxalic Acid,& found it very informative. I have noticed tho that most of the parts are chrome dipped/plated,will Oxalic Acid still have the same results with a frame that,or was,just polished chrome moly? It has only mostly surface rust & a lot of oxidisation. Also I have been told that maybe getting the frame Soda Blasted would more than likely be another option,its the same as Sand Blasting,but no-where near as abrasive! Has anybody tried this method? If they have,is it worth spending the money? I'm just a newbie at this,so any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated.

An Oxalic Acid bath is can be used to help clean rust from Chrome plated parts. I don't think it will help the finish of polished chromoly and should never be used on anything aluminum. Soda blasting would likely cloud the chrome and make it less shiny. It's normally used on unplated metals for rust and/or paint removal. If your Mongoose just has surface rust I would just try a chrome polish before doing something as dramatic as an acid bath or media blasting. Always use the gentlest process that will produce the result that you are looking for.

I have a 1987 redline rl20b, but have a few quick questions, will this stuff eat the stickers on the bike or do i have to tape them up and also i have a huge hard plastic pond that i am thinking of just putting the whole bike in there. will this stuff eat my seat, hand grips or the hard plastic pond. Also The rust on my bike i can peel of with my finger nail, should i use this wood bleech or is there another method.
Thanks, I am all new to this and want to restore my bike from when i was a kid

Click to view attachment

DANGEROUS CHEMICAL - PLEASE READ!

Hey Everyone. I paid the $2 and joined this group just so I could tell you to please be careful with Oxalic Acid. It's potentially toxic, and has to be handled carefully. You don't want to throw a few scoops in your your laundry room sink and let your kids breath the vapors. Not trying to scare anyone, but it is an acid. Exposure can cause kidney problems, nervous system damage, death...

Here's what the govt and a chemical manufacturer say:
nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/1445.pdf
www.hillbrothers.com/msds/pdf/oxalic-acid.pdf