With the high humidity we have in Hawaii, rust is harder to prevent that most other places. Scratches or paint repairs that go deep enough to expose the metal allow oxygen to start the process of transforming iron into iron oxide. Once it starts, simply painting or primering over it won't stop the rust, so it comes back later on as nasty bubbles or holes when it eats through the other side. Rust also gets in the way of doing quality work on a car, because the various iron fittings rust and get ugly. Just take those rusted fittings and put them into a glass or plastic container and let acid work on the rust, then prep for paint, or spray with light oil. Acid prep can help to solve rust problems by converting the rust [iron oxide] into another form, such as iron phosphate. Paint companies make acid prep for metal and self-etching metal primer in spray cans. Also available is acid prep at hardware stores and commercial metals sales locations. "Jasco" is one of the brands available locally and it is cheap and effective. Here's some photos showing how effective it is.

Napa, Checker, Home Depot, where? I've got a barrelful of fittings I can de-rust, plus my hood wold be a good candidate for that treatment. Thanks, Duck!

"Jasco" is on the shelf at City Mill, Waimalu ... Heh, I had to go there today to obtain a lower '89-92 Air Pump mounting bolt. GM, it seems in their infinite wisdom, engineered the serpentine mount for accessories to have a different pitch than other common 3/8-inch bolts used elsewhere in/around the SBC to hold things together. So I wasted a day scrounging 'round in the wrecking yards bagging bolts from v-belt Camaros that don't have the correct thread pitch. But City Mill had them. Ack.

Well, at least I can now run the stock '88-92 TPI serpentine on my '87 using the Air Pump delete pully. Much nicer when the AC is on and the belt isn't flopping around like before.

Thanks, Duck! I gotta do a City Mill run this week, now.

hey, if they dont have "Jasco" whats the name of the stuff im looking for?

Just go to an automotive paint store and ask for chemicals to etch metal prior to primering.

Nice! I have to make a couple City Mill runs anyway for more things for my truck. Rust removal is one of them.

So with 'Jasco' or similar, I can let it soak in and brush it clean then it's all ready? Or do I need to coat it with something else to continue to prevent rust?

(Maybe a clearer question is- If I just stop at the Jasco, will rust start to form on its own again?)

Does anyone know off the top of their heads if CM carries quality RTV? I HATE dealing with checker auto already... they are going to lose a lot of business from me. CM, however, has been very helpful considering they aren't an autoparts store.

Laters,
Scott

Checker Auto Parts can be difficult, heh. Customer service is SO bad at the Salt Lake store that I drive over to the Dillingham store just to avoid them. Trying to get info on the phone is even worse.

Instructions on the Jasco acid treatment bottle says it converts iron oxide to iron phosphate, a barrier against rust. Treating metal may take several applications brushed on. When dried, any powder residue is wiped away and filler and primer is applied. Be careful not to sand down to bare metal again, if you do, spray a light coat of self-etching primer [I purchase mine at Redline, in Kailihi, as they carry all the PPG stuff]. I don't know how rust-resistant the iron phosphate layer is, but I do know rust has not come back in areas of my car where I've used it.

A quart bottle is only a few bucks, pretty cheap.

What will you be RTVing?

Personally, I like any adhesive made by 3M. Permatex is a favorite too. Try Redline.

In addition to metal prep for rusty surfaces, Jasco also offers metal etch for surfaces in better condition.

Here's the link.

http://www.jasco-help.com/products/prod_mg.htm

Thanks Ed!

I'll just be using RTV instead of a few gaskets on my engine. I'll probably run by city mill tonight after work, so I'll see if they have what I need. Otherwise, I have to go Checker tomorrow....

You can do the same thing with vinegar, or nearly any acid. Naval Jelly, which has been around for years, is phosphoric acid.

Picked up a gallon of that JASCO stuff. How much do you dilute it for what you do? I was talkin' to some guy who uses it on boats and he mentioned something like "it says use 4 to 1, but we just use 50/50 and that stuff works real good."

You just mix up a bucket of it and drop parts in overnight or something?

Does this stuff react with other chemicals? I have those bigass plastic containers for laundry detergent that I use to clean stuff, but sometimes my sprays do weird things if there is any soap or old cleaner left....

This won't hurt the metal at all right? I can leave stuff in there for a long time and let it eat everything off to the bare metal? I got my old valve covers with rtv and paint and grease all over it that I want stripped so I can repaint it. (Checker didn't have the proper Chevy blue I wanted so I bought classic Ford blue....)

Keep up all the tech tips! :yourock:

Thanks,
Scott

See my responses at the end of your paragraphs. Sheesh, a gallon?

Sweet thanks! What? A gallon ain't enough? Hehe, you should see my truck... this stuff would eat 70% of it away. The only part of 'er without rust is the fiberglass top!

Scott

What do you guys like to use to strip things down to bare metal? Through paint, grease and rust.

I use paint thinner or gasoline for grease and dirt, but nothing I have seems to affect paint. I even tried using brake fluid to eat through paint, but that is a myth or something because it didn't do jack. I think I need to buy a power sander.

The Jasco bottle says "don't dilute" which I haven't done yet. Always full strength, and it's been working well on smaller parts. It also says to just leave thin hard rust and apply over it, but I need to take off the paint and thicker rust.

Any tips for me? I've never done this stuff before. Took me two nights of cleaning and manual sanding and I'm not even done with one valve cover. I really want something that I can pour into a 5 gallon bucket and drop parts in overnight and let it do most of the work for me. What should I be looking for? I'm heading to city mill tonight or tomorrow night.

Thanks guys,
Scott

Aircraft stripper will take off paint. Hot lye will get rid of paint and grease. Either of those will take off skin. To take rust off though, you need an acid. If you have lots of thick scaly rust to take off you might just want to get your parts media blasted.

Thanks, now I remember reading something about aircraft stripper before. Definately going to give it a try, because the stupid way I'm doin' now is just sucking up all my time with almost zero progress.

Scott

The only time aircraft stripper didn't work for me was when I tried to take the old baked and cured high-temp exhaust paint off a set of headers. Everything else it worked on.

Unless the parts belong to a show car, there's no need to remove paint and primer in good condition. Just remove the rust manually and chemically, then feather the new finish into the old. With Jasco, I always grind away rust that I can reach with tools, then apply the chemical to etch the metal. While doing so, it will dribble into corners and crevices and stabilize hidden rust areas.

If the objective is to take everything down to bare metal, the best way is a large tank acid dip. I don't know if anyone does this process in Hawaii and there's no way you can do it at home.

The remaining choice is media blasting, but it will be expensive if you have a lot of stuff to do.

There's no "magic bullet" for rust removal. It is time consuming, hard labor and expensive -- even more so when considering bodywork and patch emplacement.

My choice would be #1.

Just picked up my Jasco last night & wanted to share a pic of me messing around with it. I did these parts with minimum prep. And like Ed said, there is no "magic bullet" for rust removal. It's still better to spend the tedious task of manually removing as much rust as you can from parts. Then you can put this awesome stuff on as a treatment & protectant from further rust. All I gotta say is "awesome!". This stuff works very good even with minimum prep. In the pic, the rotor is done, keeping in mind that it looked like the header adaptor plate before the treatment. I give this stuff a thumbs up! Thanks again Ed for letting us know about this stuff.

Oops. Here's the pic