Drew

iTrader: (58)

My project car's tank straps are in relatively good condition. However, after the normal soap & water scrub, and removing the old insulating foam, I can see that the face towards the tank that was covered by foam is clearly galvanized. The side that faces away from the tank is crusty. It's not exactly traditional rust. The steel of the straps isn't pitted, but it looks like the galvanized surface has sacrificially corroded to protect the steel underneath.

So the question becomes how to clean them up so they don't detract from the rest of the car. Light wire brushing doesn't phase it. I suspect heavier abrasives would remove the galvanizing. Acetone, lacquer thinner, and mineral spirits, did nothing but remove a bit of undercoating and surface dirt. Best progress given my lack of patience, has been Ospho. I kind of love Ospho. I drip a couple drops on the nasty old metal, and it starts bubbling up like a mad science experiment. 30 seconds to a minute later, I wipe off the black bubbly mess and see shiny steel. Now the only problem with Ospho is that again, I figure it's removing the galvanized protective layer. I suppose I could Ospho the straps down to clean steel, then send em out to be galvanized, but that sounds expensive and a pita. I could hit em with spray can galvanizing compound, which might sorta work, and might look like The Ghost of Maxi-Chrome's Past paid them a visit. Or I could zap them with some variety or another of paint, which wouldn't look like new, but would protect and not be too obviously out of place...

Right now I'm testing Evapo-rust, in a bit I might take some photos to show how it's coming. Curious how other people are dealing with this, or if everyone else does like I do with my other car and just accept that the bottom of the car is the bottom of the car...

Drew

iTrader: (58)

I think Ospho is the perfect rust solution for my instant gratification needs. If this stuff was any more satisfying, it'd smoke on contact with corrosion, and you could actually hear the rust crying out in agony as it's dissolved. After an hour soaking in EvapoRust, I couldn't tell that it'd done anything to the rust, so I went back to Ospho... This stuff works fast. Brushed it on from one end to the other, by the time I got to the far end, most of the work was done. A little scrubbing with a toothbrush + water and dish soap to neutralize the Ospho, and the results below. On the worst spots, I scrubbed very lightly with a stainless wire brush, and I went over it with a red Scotchbrite.

I didn't take before pics of the strap I cleaned, but it was the worse of the pair. I haven't touched the other strap in the photos.





As best as I can tell, the Ospho didn't remove the galvanized layer. At least it didn't remove undamaged galvanizing. Pretty sure the galvanizing that was removed was already compromised by corrosion. I might follow up with some cold galvanizing spray, or prime and paint them to protect them going forward, but the acid treatment removed the funk posthaste.

In progress...


Untreated...


Die MotherRuster! Die MotherRuster Die!

F-body-fan

evoporust seems like it only works well on certain steels. I used it once on an internal flywheel on a small engine, where it was covered in rust from water infiltration. Soaked it for 2 days & couldn't believe how clean it came out. it was amazing. But then I had tried it on some other parts & it did very little, turning some rusted areas black, but never really cleaned the metal at all. I would imagine rust and corrosion is very different depending on what the metal & platings are. Do you have any metal plating companies in your area? Some places will re-plate small parts, but I am guessing thats a type of cold galvanizing? I searched forever to have some headlight buckets re-galvenized to look original with that splotchy oem look & never succeeded. Ended up eventually settling for something else.
Paints always seem to look like paint, but sometimes looks better than nothing.

This is what I was after & never succeeded in a reasonable solution. I did find a place that would do them correctly, but they had a $600 minimum charge. Way to much money for headlight buckets...... They specialized in large scale stuff &charged for the inconvenience in their process I suppose.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Sounds like the "we don't want to mess with it" price

battmann

iTrader: (9)

www.fbodystore.com sells stainless gas tank straps for thirdgens. not a bad price and you'll never have to worry about them rusting again.
http://fbodystore.com/1982-1992-cama...s-tank-straps/

scooter

iTrader: (11)

NICE!! Thanks for posting that

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Oh! Sparkly! I'll have to keep that option in mind. Hmm, rusting again? Let's be honest here, when the car is finished it will probably never see a cloudy sky again. LOL

Ironically, there is a huge galvanizing operation in town, They treat the huge galvanized pylons for high tension power lines. But I kinda figure they wouldn't be interested in my "crumbs". Maybe with a case of Keystone Light I could get someone to sneak them in when no one is looking... Oh well...

battmann

iTrader: (9)

same here. i don't plan on ever driving in inclement weather once my car is finished (if it ever gets finished). lately i'm of the mindset with my build that i will never have the car torn this far torn apart again so i just keep buying new parts. should last forever when finished.
i'll NEVER do a complete ground-up restoration on a car again. i should have just saved up money for 8 years and then bought the best car i could afford. that way i could have just changed rims or something easy and been finished.