Rust Help

We got rid of some old patio furniture which left behind a number of rust stains where the chair and table legs had been. I found this stuff, at a local home improvement store (take your pick - Home Depot or Lowes). It was relatively inexpensive, about five bucks - and worth it. It’s made by Summit Brands, and if you have a well or septic system, then you might already be familiar with one of their most popular products, Iron Out. I’ve used that product for years to remove rust and iron stains from laundry and just about anything else well-water has made rusty or dingy.

Initially, I thought vinegar or bleach would do the trick, so I did a little test. I applied straight household vinegar to a few stains before finishing the job with the Instant Rust Out spray. I left the vinegar on for about 30 minutes before scrubbing with a teflon scrubber (didn’t want to damage the patio’s deck paint). As you can see, it lightened the stains, but did not remove them, so I had to finish with the Rust Out.

Here are some before and after pictures of the rust stains on my patio. You may not notice the concrete texture as much in the after shots, since the concrete was still a little wet.

Before/After Instant Rust Out……….

…….Before/After Vinegar

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Okay, here is the final article in the series on how to remove rust from an old truck. I have heard of this as a solution to rust, but timing is the key for this method to work effectively. Read on to find out why….

Old Truck Rust - Part 3 - Rust Removal Made Easy With Household Vinegar

Believe it or not, you can use vinegar to remove rust from your old truck. It is not only cheap but easy too.

By now you have probably found a couple of rust stains in your old truck and are worrying about it. And you should worry because, if you don’t do something about it, the corrosion will slowly eat up the metal and give you a much bigger headache.

The rust removal technique we are going to teach you here works fine on superficial rust only. If the stain has already become a hole, this won’t solve the problem. But it will remove the rust stain and you will only have to sand the surface and paint it again. You will have to do this inside your garage and not in the open.

First, get some white vinegar. Depending on the size of the stain you may need a whole gallon or even more since you will have to soak the corroded surface overnight.

You will also need a couple of brushes and a few rags for a thorough rust removal.

If the corroded surface is on a particular part that you can remove from your old truck, do so and find a container big enough to house the part. Let’s say you have a corroded headlight housing. Get a plastic bucket, put the white vinegar in it and put the headlight housing inside. Let it soak overnight. The next day, give the headlight housing a good wash, preferably with a hose or a light pressure washer and presto! The rust is gone. Now you must thoroughly dry the headlight housing, prime it and paint it again.

If the corrosion stain is on a bigger part, say a door or a fender, use the rags to soak the stain. Get the rags and soak them completely in white vinegar. Put the soaked rags over the rust stain and let them there overnight. In the morning, remove the rags and give the part a thorough wash with a hose or even a light pressure washer to completely remove the corrosion stain.

As you know, vinegar is very corrosive and there is something else you have to do before painting to protect the metal. Apply a thin coat of phosphoric acid to the surface of the bare metal, after the corrosion is removed. You can use a rag or a paper towel for that. Phosphoric acid can be found in auto parts stores under generic names like rust remover, naval jelly or even miracle paint.

To make sure the rust removal process is done right it is also important that the corroded part or surface is not left in contact with vinegar longer than necessary. After all, as we said above vinegar is a corrosive solution and it will eat up the metal too. The ideal for most cases of rust is to soak between 8 to 10 hours and then apply the phosphoric acid.

One final word: as I said above this technique works only for small rust stains that haven’t completely corroded the metal and opened a whole in it. Vinegar will not restore the metal. In fact it only attacks the corrosion and cleans the metal, so to speak. But if left there it will destroy the metal even faster and deeper than natural corrosion.

So, trust vinegar to remove rust from your old truck but make sure you don’t overdo it.

Joseph A. Ceschin is a journalist with a long experience in the auto world. He publishes the website http://www.we-love-old-trucks.com for people who love old trucks. And he owns a beautiful 1954 Chevy truck.

There’s rust on your vehicle - when do you take action and what should you do? Read this second installment of three about vehicle rust, to find out more….

Old Truck Rust - Part 2 - What to Do When You First Discover Rust

Let’s say you bought a nice old truck and a few months later you noticed that little rust bubbles have formed under the paint, around one of the corners of your windshield.

Then you do an inspection of the whole truck and find more bubbles in the fenders, in the body and under the cab. What do you do?

Don’t start screaming and don’t run to your body shop just yet. Old truck rust has no cure but it is a normal thing. If you see bubbles which are less than half an inch wide, your truck will not be consumed by it immediately. You have some time until the problem gets really serious. The small bubbles you see are only a warning sign that the problem will require your attention.

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea and to think that I am saying for you not to worry with the first signs of corrosion. That’s not what I’m saying and I don’t consider myself an expert who would be able to advise you on what to do. I am just using my own experience with my 1954 Chevy truck.

When I bought the pickup corrosion had taken hold of almost every part of my old truck. I dismantled the whole truck and did a complete frame up restoration. The first thing we did was to sand blast all the metal parts to get rid of the corrosion. There were holes in several places and they were all patched. To make a long story short, the truck came out of the restoration with no rust at all.

About three years later I saw a couple of bubbles under the paint, around the windshield and at the bottom of the right front fender. Old truck rust was back. I could do three things: have the rust removed from those two spots, paint the whole truck again or just wait. Being prone to procrastination I decided to wait.

Four more years went by and during this time several other corrosion spots were discovered in the fenders, the cab and the cargo bed. The first two rust bubbles, around the windshield and at the bottom of the right fender, became much larger than they were when first discovered.

The solution? A new coat of paint needed to be applied to the old truck. After almost eight years there were several scratches and the paint was beginning to fade. I found a good body shop and had the rust spots removed before a new coat of paint was applied to the truck. It looks great now and it is a good feeling to look at is and see that there is no corrosion to be seen.

But I don’t have any illusions. There is no corrosion to be seen on my truck now but nature is working and rust will come back. Old truck rust always comes back. It may be already developing in unseen places like under the cab, inside the fenders, under the cargo bed and so on. I can’t do anything about that but I can keep my eyes open and when I see a little bubble under the paint I can repair it immediately or wait another couple of years.

One important tip to help with the prevention of corrosion: keep your truck inside your garage. This way water will only attack it when the truck is driven in the rain or when washed.

So, my advice is for you to keep your eyes open and once in a while do an inspection of your truck to see if there are any rust spots developing. And remember these words: you can wait a while until you’re good and ready to tackle the problem but make sure you do it or you’ll lose your truck to rust.

The removal of old truck rust doesn’t have to be hard or expensive though. In our next article we’ll tell you how to remove rust with household vinegar!

Joseph A. Ceschin is a journalist with a long experience in the auto world. He publishes the website http://www.we-love-old-trucks.com for people who love old trucks. And he owns a beautiful 1954 Chevy truck.