Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
General Discussion => Tech Tips => Topic started by: High On Octane on April 13, 2013, 04:08:31 am
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So my tank was disgustingly filthy from sitting empty for over 20 years. I don't really have a whole lot of money left to be spending on my bike so I decided to try out a product at work called Evapo-Rust. Pretty interesting stuff. It's a water soluble liquid that you soak rusted parts in. It's non-toxic, safe on skin and in eyes and 1 gallon is reusable for up to 300 pounds of steel and had specific instruction on the label for treating gas tanks. After you're done soaking the item/s you just rinse with water and dry with heat and/or air. And apparently if it evaporates you just add tap water to it. I plugged my petcock holes and put a gallon of it in my tank. I've been rotating the tank around and letting it sit in different positions for 2 hours at a time. I also have my petcocks sitting in a cup of it as they were pretty gunked up too. I will post results tomorrow.
Scottie
http://www.evaporust.com/evaporust.html?gclid=CLe5oqXVxrYCFZBcMgodxxEAiQ
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Turns out this stuff works pretty darn good. Didn't clean quite as good as I hoped, but it definitely did a great job breaking down the 20+ years of rust that hard formed in that tank and is ready to be put back in service now. I have no doubt in my mind that if I could afford a 5 gallon bucket of this stuff to completely fill the tank, it would be spotless in 12 hours or less. The petcocks I soaked over night and they practically look brand new and the rubber seals seam to be completely clean and even a little refreshened. I also soaked the gas cap as it had some nasty rust formed on it. That came out really good too. I wish I had taken some before pics because I didn't realize how well it was going to work.
Another benefit to this stuff is that they claim it will remove blueing from chrome after soaking it for only 30 minutes. I'll try that 1 at a future date as I just put the bike back together and don't feel like pulling the exhaust off again.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this product for rust removal. Not only is it non-toxic and practically odorless, it works really well and does it's job. As a side note, this stuff is PERFECT for if your tools get exposed to rain or snow and start to rust. :)
Scottie
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Did It mess up the new paint job? ERC
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Did It mess up the new paint job? ERC
No! Another bonus. I spilled quite a bit on the paint shaking it around and it didn't even remove all of the wax. I just sprayed the area with water and wiped it up with a microfiber!
Scottie
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Sounds like good stuff, miracle in a jug. Thanks for the tip.
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Evapo-rust is super stuff. I have used it for years. The key is temperature. It is temp sensitive, at 100F it really works fast. As the temp drops it slows down and stops working below 70F. It is nontoxic, biodegradable, totally safe for paint,plastic,rubber and chrome. No gloves or eye protection needed.
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Maybe that's why it took a little longer to work for me. I did it in the spring time and the day time temps were only in the 60's F. Still did a great job!
Scottie
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Really like using Evaporust on parts and tools. Much nicer than that gooey Naval Jelly stuff that pickled everything.
Going to add Evaporusting for tanks to the list next to Pine Sol for carb soak/cleaner. I had antifreeze in a crockpot for carbs, but wrote it off since it is a bother to keep isolated from amminulls and leaves a crockpot and dirty antifreeze sitting in the garage.
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Another good rust remover is water and molasses.
Mix about 1 cup of molasses to each gallon of water and fill the tank or place the parts in it.
It takes several days to do its work but the metal will be clean and unlike Naval Jelly, it won't attack and dissolve the metal.
The unsulfered type of molasses doesn't seem to work very well but if you can find the kind with the sulfur still in it, your in business.
The kind with sulfur in it is often fed to horses so if you have a Co-Op in your area they will know exactly what you want.
Another nice thing about using molasses is it doesn't require any neutrilizing and it washes off easily with water. (Don't forget to apply some oil to protect the metal while your waiting to refill the tank.) :)
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Molasses? I'll check out Southern States and Tractor Supply. Maybe the Amish Feed Store if they don't pan out. That's got to be cheaper than Evaporust and easy to dispose of.
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Evaporust is nontoxic and water soluble. They actually say on the label that it's safe to dispose of down the drain. ???
Scottie
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Evaporust is nontoxic and water soluble. They actually say on the label that it's safe to dispose of down the drain. ???
Scottie
Righto. Well, molasses smells good!
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Molasses is also non-toxic, you can wash it down the drain and you can make some really good cookies with it. :)
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I know this is an "ancient" post, but I couldn't resist responding. Here's why I love Evapo-Rust for restoration work (see attached before & after photos)... 8) The "after" photo shows the shocks fresh out of a bath in Evapo-Rust (and still dripping). The magic juice saved me a ton of work trying to clean rust out of the coils.
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Awesome!
do you think this stuff could save my bullet turn signals? Bought new from NFG, one year of three-season riding... not too impressive:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mE_wDUpswnAI1Sec9WnEsUAmjkZbCVi_SCKR0Od7lsA=w600-h463-no)
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Matt, unfortunately the cheap Indian chrome is gone. I think your best bet would be to sand them and paint them black or silver. But hey, you could always try the Evapo-Rust and see what happens. :)
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Awesome!
do you think this stuff could save my bullet turn signals? Bought new from NFG, one year of three-season riding... not too impressive:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mE_wDUpswnAI1Sec9WnEsUAmjkZbCVi_SCKR0Od7lsA=w600-h463-no)
It is certainly worth a try. Get the small jug (should be $8.00) and soak them for 24 hours. I've salvaged quite a bit of chrome parts that way.
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Here's an exhaust pipe I cleaned up by soaking in Evapo-Rust (it's a rare pipe off a 1969 Honda SL90). My chrome plating guy would not touch it because the carbon in the pipe would gunk up his chrome plating tanks. So I plugged the exhaust and soaked it in Evapo-Rust for 24 hours then hit it with 000 steel wool. It cleaned up really nicely IMO.
BTW, the scratches on the end of the pipe were put there in 1970 by me (yep, I still have the same bike after 46 years) when I laid the bike down on asphalt (my mother would have killed me if she had found out that I "crashed"). Fortunately my after-market Anderson passenger foot pegs on the swing arm functioned as crash bars and saved me and the rest of the bike from any major damage (so mom never found out, lol).
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Thanks guys!
Surfernick - the question I have is... what do you do after that beautiful clean-up to prevent the rust from returning?
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If you can save the chrome just polish it again with metal polish.
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I keep the bikes garaged and I routinely clean & polish the chrome - it helps living in a dry climate with no snow and very little rain (perpetual drought here in California). :-\
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Watching that funky TV show where the dude fixes up old things he mentioned using a little oil to wet the rust on the chrome and then rubbing vigorously with aluminum foil would remove the rust and polish the chrome.
I haven't tried it but it does make sense.
Iron oxide (rust) is a fairly soft abrasive and when mixed with oil it should be capable of polishing chrome plating without damaging it.
It sounds like a much safer way to get the rust off of the chrome and a little bit of aluminum foil and a few drops of oil has to be cheaper than buying some chrome polish.
I'm not suggesting that this method is better than the Evapo-Rust method but it's worth a try.
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Is this a good point to ask... what's going on here with chrome and rust? I assumed that the chrome plating was compromised, so the steel beneath it rusts. You can remove the rust, but the chrome is still gone, isn't it? Removing the rust doesn't reveal shiny chrome beneath it, does it?
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Good question regarding the chrome being compromised by rust - I'm sure the quality of the plating has a lot to do with its salvage-ability. I can say that the chrome won't be perfect after an Evapo-rust bath. For example, ER won't fix pits in the chrome. It does a good job, however, of removing rust on Honda chrome (I can't speak for the quality of RE chrome) and for parts like my shock absorbers and exhuast (in the photos) it's the best alternative to disassembly and re-plating.
I really didn't want to take the shocks apart - it was easier to toss 'em in a tub of ER and rinse them off the next day.
I use aluminum foil for light rust removal too. Just keep the aluminum wet with water. It works well and doesn't scratch (takes a bit of "elbow grease" ). It's a good item for your rust removal tool-kit.