Technical Can I soak chrome on vinegar??

What's up guys. I know that vinegar removes rust but I just wondering if is safe if I soak a chrome grille that's has rust on the back side. Is it safe for the chrome ? Thanks joe


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I have heard of coco cola and a ball of tin foil. Never tried it, but have heard lots about it. You could start out with 50/50 water and vinegar if your concerned.

 

I had the parking light units on my '51 Ford re-chromed about 30 years ago. I removed them to do some work a couple of years ago. Although the outsides still looked excellent, I was surprised at how rusty the insides were. (One of them even had a tiny pinhole rusted through it; luckily it was in a corner of one of the grooves so it is almost impossible to see from the outside.) I soaked them for a day in "Evaporust", and they looked like new inside. I metal-prepped and painted the insides to prevent further rusting. While all the rust was gone, the chrome was perfect, and the black paint in the grooves was untouched and only needed some minor touch-up. It worked better than I could have hoped. I don't like vinegar because it is acidic and can damage the base metal if you don't watch it very carefully.

 

Oxalic acid aka wood bleach for soaking chrome plated parts

 

It would be safe to rinse with baking soda/water mixture, if using any type of acidic wash. The baking soda will neutralize the acid.

 

Im trying to soak the whole grille of my 51 ford. Just like u said out side is ok but the inside is bad. Thanks for the info. How long u left them soaking?



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I have an original paint '29 that the bumpers were sort of rusty. I soaked diapers in vinegar and wrapped the bumpers. Where the chrome was real bad it loosened it more. But where the chrome was decent it did a good job. I'd say go ahead but be careful. I might not soak the grille but wrap it as I did. Vinegar does not evaporate. Check it every day.

 

I think it was about a day. With "Evaporust", you can leave it as long as you want (within reason; I've never left something for 6 months). I also did a '50 Ford grille that I had laying around from a parts car (decent chrome on the outside; rusty on the inside) that I later sold on eBay. Again it came out better than I expected. It sounds like just what you need.

 

how about just brushing the rusty areas with OSPHO?

 

Hello,

This stuff is the best for getting rust spots off of stainless steel and other surfaces. I have used it on plain metal, fiberglass that had metal rust specks on it, chrome parts of a bicycle, etc. The stuff just works. It is not for huge chunks of rust. That is a story in itself. This is for surface rust if you do not want to use caustic chemicals or rub forever with Never Dull compound.

Jnaki

Spotless Stainless can be ordered on line. Also, it just hoses off, leaving a clean surface.

 

I can't give any opinions about soaking a complete grill, but I put a chrome plated wrench in vinegar a while back and left it for several days. When I took it out the chrome had turned black.

Just my experience.

 

If you want to save the chrome ,
At least check this out. And it's cheap cheap cheap.

Vinigar works well at taking off rust, but it eats metal up too. Vinigar destroyed some nuts and bolts, the treads were sloppy when they came out.

http://indianapolisvintage.proboards.com/thread/32/cleaning-chrome-oxalic-acid

 

Coke and tinfoil works great with a bit of elbow grease. Have restored many pieces that way with outstanding results

 

Oxalic acid aka wood bleach is what bicycle restorers use. No damage to chrome.
woodbleach

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-using-oxalic-acid-to-remove-rust.248198/

 

I've never heard of the vinegar application before!....interesting...........but I have used Evap-o-rust with good results several times...soaked for a few hours, covered with plastic so it wouldn't dry out while soaking...dabbed it on with a paint brush, and checked periodically.... I would be cautious with anything that is ''extremely'' rusty however....I found out I had a LOT more rust than I thought hiding under the chrome! I'm very curious about trying the Oxalic acid that Gerrys above used^^^.....I know it works on bicycles, because my brother used it many times (he works in a bicycle repair shop)....I just don't have experience with it personally ''as of yet''...........best of luck with your grille!

 

I wouldn't. Chrome is essentially impervious to vinegar. However, the nickel plate underneath is not. The copper plate is also susceptible to vinegar. And the base steel will also start to be eaten away if you leave it long enough. If you have rust on the back side of the grille, it might be fine. Then again, it might reveal that your part had pinholes through almost to the front side and now a driver-condition item would be scrap metal. There are products specifically designed to do just what you want to do. If you aren't going to have it professionally rechromed, I would just use one of them.

At the risk of making this long post slightly longer, I will finish with an anecdote. About 25 years ago, I had some heavily tarnished brass plated end caps to a classic wooden sailboat spinnaker pole. I wanted to restore them to shinny brass. My dad said to try Coca-Cola. I did. Nothing happened. So he suggested vinegar. Leaving them soaking overnight, I checked them in the morning. There was no more corrosion on the brass because the brass was completely stripped and dissolved in solution. That taught me some valuable lessons. First, never put anything in an acid if you want to keep that thing. Second, don't do uncontrolled experiments on items which can't be replaced. Third, dads aren't always right.

 

When I was just a kid I lost a bet.
My friends dad was busting my chops because my bicycle handle bars being rusty. He bet me that he could get the rust off my handle bars with a piece of juicy fruit gum. In my infinite wisdoms I took the bet. He opens the gum, chews it up a little bit, spit on the tin foil wrapper and rubbed on the bars and a nice brown colored spit based paste , cleaned a nice spot off the bars.
I had to clean his pig pen truck.

Foil works on chrome but it scratches it, still looks better than rusty chrome. I don't think it's doing to work on the back side of a plated part though

 

If it has that scummy red stuff all over it but no bubbled rust pits, I get great quick cleanup with 3M rubbing compound (rust red color in the can, coarser than polishing compound) that shines all the crud off and doesn't damage the shine. Finish up with white polishing compound if you want but the rubbing compound does a pretty good job by itself.

 

Oxalic acid works wonders.

 

One word................molasses.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rust-removal-the-miracle-of-molasses.557996/

 

This was a little bit past word # 7 so it probably wasn't read

 

Installing all the chrome and stainless on my 56 after a strip and paint. I'm painting the back side of all of it with Eastwood cast iron gray. Most is original and some rechromed. Just thought it was a good idea and I needed something to do while waiting for it to come back.

 

Well I decided to soak this pieces . I put a gallon of vinegar by 3 gallons of water. Lets see how it goes . By the way this are not so good shape pieces . They both have pin holes .


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Ive been a metal polisher and chrome plater for 35 yrs and I can tell you not to attempt any sort of dip ,on Diecast trims .most dips are acid or alkali and both WILL eat at the base metal ! As for steel parts ,molassis is the only way to "DIP" the rust , or mask and blast .

 

Not sure about chrome but I can tell you what works for me on anything brass.
Try Ketchup !!!

I rub it on and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes and then just rinse it off with water. I never tried it on chrome.

Jimbo

 

Lemon juice ate a hole in this pretty nice quadrajet

 

I did a big fancy chandelier with catsup and it works great in removing oxidation and shining it up. A couple warnings though; be careful handling it, catsup will burn your hands if you stay in it too long. Use rubber gloves. Second, look at it often. It is so effective if you leave some brass alloys in it too long it will eat the white metal in the alloy and leave the brass with a strong copper tone.

 

^^^ wow, I'm ''also'' learning a lot about this issue of chrome/rust/metal....never heard of catsup at removing oxidation either!!!....I'm gonna 'borrow' my wife's big jug of molasses when she's not looking (stealth mode)!!! ...appreciate the sharing of knowledge!

 

The molasses you need is used for cattle feed, not what you have in the kitchen. I could explain further, but don't know if I really understand it well enough to do so. Do a search for molasses and you'll get the good information.