At Last it is about 2 weeks later and I'm ready to see if the molasses soak worked to remove rust. I think it did, although not as well as I had hoped... but it IS a long time kind of treatment so the more time you give it, the more will be accomplished I think. The soak DID turn a lot of the surface rust into a dark gray scum on the metal that was easily brushed off under running water in the utility sink. The 2 upper control arms and the 1 lower control arm I believe are now ready for acid etching prior to POR15. The two bedside brackets are deeply corroded and are going back in the bath for more time. I see some rust removal on them, but I'd like to see how much more they can be improved with a longer bath. When I opened the tub up today, the surface was covered with moldy goo that I was dreaming was due to the rust reversal process but maybe it was just the molasses going bad.... I don't know. The 2nd lower control arm is going in the bath now, along with the tie rods and idler arm. I actually think the tie rods will be replaced with new ones during the rebuild, but I thought I'd see how the bath affects them. In another 2 weeks, we shall see. Right now my next step is to figure out how to remove the old components from the control arms. How do I remove those things? I'll have to pose the question on the truck forums..... |
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Will it work? I don't know, but I thought I would give it a try. Molasses to remove rust.... we shall see. Ordered two gallons of Molasses on eBay. Found a suitable container for the bath... a Rubbermade storage container with a locking cover. Not sure how many gallons it holds... I put in about 15 to 20 gallons of water and about 1 and a half gallons of Molasses. The images shown here will serve as our "before" shots and then in a couple weeks I will hopefully be adding some less rusty "after" shots. The parts are actually pretty clean already since I just recently sandblasted them a bit. But some rust still remains on a few because I ran out of time to complete the blasting... and wanted to try the molasses method on them anyway. I twisted some wires onto the smaller pieces so I can pull them out for inspection without having to stick my hand in to find them. Some small sections from my bed sides will make great experiment pieces for this (the things with the orange wire on them). So, I submerged one lower control arm, two upper control arms and the bed side sections. Then I locked the cover on and recorded the date. Can't wait to see what happens!
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ChevyEddieA guy just having fun fiddlin' in his garage Archives
May 2016
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