So I was asked the other day how to remove the rust off of small parts. I use my beadblaster but before I had a beadblaster I use to use a wire brush. But today I'm going to show you the easiest way for the DIY guy. Go buy some chrome wheel cleaner, liquid form. Empty bottle into container and drop your parts in. 24 hrs later use a brass brush or any wire brush you have and scrub the surface after. You may or may need to soak parts longer, but let the product do the work. Once happy with results rinse with water, dry then your ready to prime your parts. Anyway here's a before and after pic of a front retainer clip.
Evaporust is yer friend for things like that. It chelates rust, and only removes iron oxide, and does not affect the good iron/steel.
I just wanted to point out to people new to this can simply use or buy a product that they may already have. if they need help with their project.
You can buy Evaporust at just about any auto parts store and it is re-usable. Plus, no scrubbing or brushing required.
My favorite is Muriatic acid from a pool supply house. 5 minutes and its like new. Need to be careful and rinse and dry well. I like to put clear spray paint on very soon to prevent rusting. Work great.
You have it re-chromed. (or bead blasted and painted... shudder) An OEM bumper was bare steel smoothed, then copper electroplated, smoothed and polished (one to several applications), then nickel electroplate, and then hard chrome (haxavalent). If it is flaking, then the copper to steel bond is compromised, you will not stop the flaking and have anything that looks good at less than 1/4 mile. IMO, since bumpers on older cars really were more about aesthetics than protection, and the rest of the car is good looking, paying the money to have them done properly is a good investment and really serves well. One can often make poor paint look well enough with nice trim/chrome wheels and tires, but a perfect paint job is hard to see past rusty twisted bumpers.
I heard that muriatic acid works good on the cars body too. When used as directed by Pete the utube guy.
I guess I definitely got a defective bottle of Evaporust... I've used the electrical battery charger process with washing soda with great success! https://www.hotrod.com/articles/mscp-1204-how-to-remove-rust-with-electrolysis/
Oven cleaner works good on cleaning nasty grease and oil like from engine blocks and front suspension where all the leaks seem to end up. The fumes are pretty toxic, so wear a nuisance mask. Be careful on aluminum parts though, it will clean them, but don't leave it too long or it will etch the surface. After applying oven cleaner, let it soak a while and scrub with stiff brush, then rinse well and follow with a degreaser. I like to use Parson's Sudsy ammonia, and another rinse. Once dry, ready for primer and paint. Use the heavy duty oven cleaner. You can save some money buying the Easy Off generic at Family Dollar. Same with the ammonia.
I just did my exhaust manifolds in molasses. (works like evaporust by chelating and transforming FeIII to FeII and chelation, but much cheaper. Will not touch "good iron" only the oxide. ) $12 for 2 gallons of feed molasses, a 20 gallon fish tank, filled the tank, dumped the molasses in the tank and stirred it up, then used prepall to degrease them and let them dry then set them in the tank so they were resting on the flange face so the rest of the manifolds were exposed to the molasses, then covered the tank. Stirred them once a day, left them in a week, pulled them out, pressure washed them to get all the gunk off, and they looked like new castings. They flash rusted a bit, so I sprayed them with Ospho and let them dry, then wet them with Ospho and water rinsed to neutralize and remove the Ospho, and used a heat gun to dry them, then prepall again just to be sure no oil from handling them, primed them, then painted and clear coat with VHT "cast iron" ceramic paint, and I will be doing the "run and bake and cool" curing process.
I use powdered citric acid and water. Cheap and some say it is the active ingredient in evapo rust. I am inclined to believe it is. I have used both.
Oven cleaner is great stuff if you want to get to bare metal. I used it all the time as the last step before painting my antuque tractors. WARNING IF YOU USE OVEN CLEANER. It will remove paint, do not use near any paint you do not want damaged. I bought this big tumbler at a machine shop going out of bussness auction sale. they used it to take sharp edges off machined parts with pea gravel. My orginal use was to tumble rifle cases and shot gun hulls useing cheap rice. I found out it removes rust off small parts and nuts and bolts. Thing works great for that. Holds 25 pounds of rice to half fill it. Al