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Rust Removal Adventures: Electrolysis, Acid etc


Onoff

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57 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Our family's last Ford was a Cortina Mk III L reg, and that *didn't* handle well.

 

That era Cortina was all about a soft and comfy rather than sporty cornering. 

 

The Focus suspension set up is renowned for being very good in even standard form. The ST170 just made it better. 

 

Light years away from the one dimensional, rear leafed set up on the Capri though I love them! You can at least feel the "it's gonna go" point with the Capri. 

 

Thinking now I might get this cross member galvanised coating if I can get it done at mate's rates.

 

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3 minutes ago, Onoff said:

That era Cortina was all about a soft and comfy

Was that why they had vinyl seats, there is something special about remembering sitting in the MK 3 estate (2 litre auto in beige) in the South of France summers.

I could piss myself and mother just assumed it was pre puberty sweat.

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10 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Light years away from the one dimensional, rear leafed set up on the Capri though I love them! You can at least feel the "it's gonna go" point with the Capri. 

 

 

For a short time around 40 years ago I owned a Capri.  A 3000GT.  Sort of OK in a straight line, but it handled like a bollock on roller skates in corners.  Massive amounts of understeer, followed by ludicrous power-induced oversteer.  One thing it was exceptionally good at was producing clouds of tyre smoke...

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37 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

That era Cortina was all about a soft and comfy rather than sporty cornering. 

 

The Focus suspension set up is renowned for being very good in even standard form. The ST170 just made it better. 

 

Light years away from the one dimensional, rear leafed set up on the Capri though I love them! You can at least feel the "it's gonna go" point with the Capri. 

 

Thinking now I might get this cross member galvanised coating if I can get it done at mate's rates.

 

 

So you are presumably in the market for Buildhub zinc roof offcuts ...

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14 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Sought after? Presumably chassis rot can be a big issue?

 

Pretty easy to just swap the chassis out for a galvanised one.  I'd guess a fair few 2As are already running around with replacement galvanised chassis, given the propensity for the originals to shed outriggers from rust.

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39 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Sought after? Presumably chassis rot can be a big issue?

The older they are, the more they are worth. Series 1's are the ones that go for silly money, even a pile of rust if it has the right paperwork.

 

Mine is a series 3, the least desirable of the leaf sprung landies.  But the main reason I bought mine was it was cheap, and had already been rebuilt on a new galvanised chassis.  Replacing the chassis, as long as to original pattern is not classed as a modification so does not remove it's MOT exempt status.

 

If you are looking at one >40 years old to be MOT exempt, be aware it is only MOT exempt is not significantly modified. So make sure it has original engine and transmission,  If it has been upgraded to a later TDI engine for example, that will lose it's MOT exempt status as that was not an engine option when the vehicle was made.

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43 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

 

I reckon you might get a bit wrinkly if you bath in that...

 

MORE wrinkly I think you mean...

 

Was using some 50% phosphoric acid at work today (for it's intended descaling purpose) and wondered how that would work in the heated tank?

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Phosphoric acid is my favourite for de-rusting stuff, as it converts ferric oxide into ferrous phosphate, which provides a bit of further corrosion resistance, even before painting, oiling or whatever.  It doesn't need to be heated to work well, and I'd be inclined to not mix it with anything, as it works very well on its own.  The only snag is that it only really works well on stuff that's been very thoroughly degreased.

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Need to blank the plug hold off for the big bath tank. Figuring though the citric acid might eat whatever alloy the waste is made of as it says it'll eat zinc, tin, lead and alloys thereof.

 

20190831_132832.thumb.jpg.a3a4694e95e7b82ca617419665c43bc5.jpg

 

20190831_132737.thumb.jpg.cc27018cc9e03ac8fafbb8ba78eaa352.jpg

 

How to blank it off?

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1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

Layer of cement in the bottom?

 

I don't think so! Sounds like hard work and overkill.

 

Might have a black plastic waste somewhere here...

 

One thing I'd noted is I left the parts in the small tank for over a week and some parts have corroded/ disintegrated!

 

20190831_144305.thumb.jpg.5682e7859662c985a2ade86876fb01b6.jpg

 

What was 4 circlips:

 

20190831_144359.thumb.jpg.2d19936b7077fa4417aba0ebda469eaa.jpg

 

The plane blades are interesting (and annoying). They've both thinned down and narrowed at what I guess is the high carbon content end:

 

20190831_144323.thumb.jpg.ee56500ffcb9ab70fba08f9f26200879.jpg

 

 

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Bit of GRP over the hole?  Coupled with a bit applied on the underside, bonded to the bit of the top, should seal it up OK.  Might be quicker to just stick something over the hole with a bit of CT1, probably do a good enough job.

 

One advantage of using phosphoric acid over citric acid is that the corroded steel won't get eaten away and thin.  Once all the ferric oxide (rust) has been converted to ferric phosphate, it becomes pretty much inert to further action from the phosphoric acid.  For something heavily corroded I'd be inclined to remove the worst of the ferric oxide with something like citric acid, but not go too far with this, just enough to get back to the original dimensions.  Then wash off and dry the part and treat it with phosphoric acid (make sure it is properly dry before treating with phosphoric acid; water can form insoluble salts which appear as white powder and prevent paint adhering.  When it's uniformly black, then remove the part and dry it as quickly as possible.  Don't wash off the phosphoric acid from the surface, just let it dry naturally.

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I might have a black plastic waste here somewhere. I'd put that in then the plug with a bit of silicone for good measure.

 

Was half thinking a flat metal disc like a conduit lid whacked in with CT1?

 

EDIT: But not a conduit lid as that's galvanised so zinc.

Edited by Onoff
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  • 2 months later...

Should have done this back when it was warmer but I finally got around to filling the old bath up with 9kg of citric acid in water. The only "hot" was the 3 buckets from the tap that I mixed it up with, the rest was from the garden hose. Should have blocked the overflow off too to get a deeper fill as a couple of bits of the crossmember are poking above the surface.

Made a rough lid from a denailed / renailed pallet and a bit of lorry siding (not quite wide enough).

In went the MK1 Focus rear cross member (gut feel it's too far gone to be bothering) and one of the rear trailing arms (salvageable I reckon).

No ideas what'll happen in this weather, guessing it might freeze? The bath is outside up against the derelict stable. Assume the derusting will be really slow too with no heat?

 

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20191110_151837.thumb.jpg.a8eaea0223bdca3f5d9c7da51d6d0abf.jpg

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Ed Davies said:

@Onoff Didn't you have some solar thermal tubes? Did any survive?

 

 

Yep, 3 panels I had! :( 1 panel is intact. On the two damaged panels 9 out of the 24 tubes are totalled. The rest look to be in good order.

 

Oddly enough I spoke to (I think it was Jack) at Navitron the other week about replacement tubes.

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