Evaporust - first time user / review

[Ross365]

I spent quite a while getting rust off a wheel arch yesterday; sanding and wire brush. As always, you find yourself sitting in a cloud of very fine dust and even with a breathing mask and Uvex goggles I really hate it! Hence the joy of being able to throw some things in a bucket of citric, and those Alfa parts look fantastic. I wondered myself in the past about whether citric could serve to soften really thick rust and I'm not surprised to hear the suggestion that it does.

 

[Dcal]

Looks like it worked very well. There's different types of rust iirc. I have found electrolysis to work great on magnetite (the black hard rust) as my scaler doesn't seem to do much to it. A cold chisel works better but is laborious

I did a similar subframe, off a lancia delta, with electrolysis and while the outside derusted great the areas inside, shaded by the outer parts of the frame didn't derust at all.
Might have been my setup, but I thought electrolysis only worked on line of sight (if you know what I mean)

Another thing I like about citric acid is it will etch steel, which gives a good surface for paint.
Not so useful if you are trying to maintain detail but it has its place.

It's is rather nice to have several ways to skin a cat but I find grit blasting is by far my most used method as it's quick, effective and I can get paint on straight away.

 

[ukracer]

I found a major problem as someone had left the box with my collets in for my collet chuck where water ended up pooling and they have ended up with varying degrees of damn rust on them.

So I have left them in old evaporust and will buy some more so finish them off.
How would you go around filtering the old evaporust as its quite new but has bits and floating emulsion in it?

 

[Ross365]

How about something like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/27548119...0Pea2og8lIez3171hAXFyAkw==|tkp:BlBMULzgyYivYg

 

[ukracer]

How about something like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275481192190?hash=item4023f566fe:g:2FoAAOSwHDFjNroW&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAAwLr8eEzmjoGE07tZnQHUtHEMR1k0qMzoXJm7sNp6/8HZMI6tBMNy3RfjpE110oNi+vOsszvv2hrXJ2l+s2s65b7do/Bcl0WuDubFf9XdehI1Jw7biwNf8zAgy3yHOF2I7a45DuC9KA5N7HD15CLHEQCJF5wBzL/xvTomTC/TLS0dcXqW0oCR4kDVeCaf5bY9NXjETaQSJ6JdG1WV3tBkpdyHVW4TJZ6sDTfgoLSDde0Pea2og8lIez3171hAXFyAkw==|tkp:BlBMULzgyYivYg

I was hoping for something a bit tighter.
But not quite as tight as a paint strainer paper cone.

I think I might try an automatic gearbox filter I saw on amazon.
I am.going to add a small.pump to agitated the solution once it's clear of crud.

Does anyone know if evaporust works better if heated?

And finally what would be best to use mechanically to finalise clean up.bearing in mind I am cleaning collets.

 

[Ross365]

Does anyone know if evaporust works better if heated?

Chemical reactions almost always speed up when temp goes, and plain citric definitely does. However, Evaporust is a more complicated mixture, as seems to be indicated by the requirements for storage. For that reason, I'd definately be looking for whatever info the makers supply about temp.

 

[GRW]

I was hoping for something a bit tighter.
But not quite as tight as a paint strainer paper cone.

I think I might try an automatic gearbox filter I saw on amazon.
I am.going to add a small.pump to agitated the solution once it's clear of crud.

Does anyone know if evaporust works better if heated?

And finally what would be best to use mechanically to finalise clean up.bearing in mind I am cleaning collets.

Would nylon stand up ok to the solution ? If yes..... then
How about the old fallback of straining the stuff through a pair of ladies tights (maybe even multiple layers)?

 

[Dcal]

There's an aluminium bush in the arm so I don't fancy dipping that, but I will blast it and let the whole arm ginger up to see if there's any differences.
I assume the citric acid will be better at removing salts from the rust pits, but we will see.

I blasted the rest of the suspension arm yesterday and left it outside for half an hour so it obviously got rained on given the summer we are having here.

The black is just grit sticking to water wicking out of the joints.

Left it inside overnight.
This morning we have this.

For some reason the dipped area has not gingered up to the same extent as the blasted area.
Where the paint had remained it held up better so I assume the rusted areas have high levels of salt.

I don't have the test gear to carry out a Bresle salt test so this will have to remain conjecture.
Out of interest I'll dip this end of the arm and see if the citric acid removes some of the salt.

Epoxy primers can deal with pretty high levels of salt but obviously the lower the better for best performance,
Good enough is good enough.

 

[JOEPRO]

I blasted the rest of the suspension arm yesterday and left it outside for half an hour so it obviously got rained on given the summer we are having here.

View attachment 409108

The black is just grit sticking to water wicking out of the joints.

Left it inside overnight.
This morning we have this.

View attachment 409109

For some reason the dipped area has not gingered up to the same extent as the blasted area.
Where the paint had remained it held up better so I assume the rusted areas have high levels of salt.

View attachment 409110

I don't have the test gear to carry out a Bresle salt test so this will have to remain conjecture.
Out of interest I'll dip this end of the arm and see if the citric acid removes some of the salt.

Epoxy primers can deal with pretty high levels of salt but obviously the lower the better for best performance,
Good enough is good enough.

That sure is very interesting!! I often wondered about the effects of road salt. I have a w124 Sportline Coupe which is very rusty indeed and I will be restoring it. I can actually see white salt crystals stuck below it.

I will blast the metal which is staying and look into salt treatments too.

 

[Dcal]

There are products for removing salt but I don't think they work that well.

CHLOR-X SALT REMOVER - Rustbuster

Surface salts will damage even the toughest coating systems, simply washing alone will not remove these stubborn crystals! Chlor-X from Rustbuster will alter the surface tension of the salt and allow it to be simply removed.

www.rust.co.uk

Distilled water would be as good as anything if you can immerse the parts in it, repeated pressure washing with normal clean water can reduce salt levels to acceptable levels.

Citric acid seem to be pretty good as well unless some compound from the rust removal process is masking the results.
If I could find a cheap salt testing kit I could confirm, but not at over £300.

 

[Seadog]

Distilled, and de-ionized is better

 

[Ross365]

There are products for removing salt but I don't think they work that well.

CHLOR-X SALT REMOVER - Rustbuster

Surface salts will damage even the toughest coating systems, simply washing alone will not remove these stubborn crystals! Chlor-X from Rustbuster will alter the surface tension of the salt and allow it to be simply removed.

www.rust.co.uk

Distilled water would be as good as anything if you can immerse the parts in it, repeated pressure washing with normal clean water can reduce salt levels to acceptable levels.

Citric acid seem to be pretty good as well unless some compound from the rust removal process is masking the results.
If I could find a cheap salt testing kit I could confirm, but not at over £300.

I won't argue with you, but have you got some results of professional laboratory tests which support you views... or is this just an opinion you made up over breakfast?

I know people who bought new cars, or paid off large chunks of their mortgages with the extra money they earned spending lots of time cleaning the inside of a power station cooling system after it accidentally got salt water in it.

 

[Cheesie]

I was given this a few weeks ago glad I seen this post

 

[Dcal]

I won't argue with you, but have you got some results of professional laboratory tests which support you views... or is this just an opinion you made up over breakfast?

I know people who bought new cars, or paid off large chunks of their mortgages with the extra money they earned spending lots of time cleaning the inside of a power station cooling system after it accidentally got salt water in it.

I thought I made it quite clear in my posts that I'm guessing and making it up as I go along.
I'm just sharing what I've been playing at over the last few days in the hope that someone finds it useful.

I certainly didn't suggest my trials are in any way scientific but at least I have provided some actual results, no matter how unreliable, that do show what can be achieved using cheap ingredients and a plastic dust bin.

I have used Chlor X in the past and I couldn't see any noticeable improvement over the control where I just used water.
That doesn't mean it isn't effective, but if I can't see a recognisable effect why would I persevere, or tell people I found it effective.
If you have to carry out laboratory test to prove an effect it probably isn't worth bothering with in your backyard where there are going to be loads of variables.

If more people (like yourself) posted the results of de-rusting and coating trials in our real world conditions, we might all learn something.

 

[Dcal]

I was given this a few weeks ago glad I seen this post View attachment 409190

I can throw that in my bin if you want.

 

[Cheesie]

I can throw that in my bin if you want.

Be great thanks

 

[Ross365]

I thought I made it quite clear in my posts that I'm guessing and making it up as I go along.
I'm just sharing what I've been playing at over the last few days in the hope that someone finds it useful.

I certainly didn't suggest my trials are in any way scientific but at least I have provided some actual results, no matter how unreliable, that do show what can be achieved using cheap ingredients and a plastic dust bin.

I have used Chlor X in the past and I couldn't see any noticeable improvement over the control where I just used water.
That doesn't mean it isn't effective, but if I can't see a recognisable effect why would I persevere, or tell people I found it effective.
If you have to carry out laboratory test to prove an effect it probably isn't worth bothering with in your backyard where there are going to be loads of variables.

If more people (like yourself) posted the results of de-rusting and coating trials in our real world conditions, we might all learn something.

 

[Ross365]

I think what concerns me is that the effect of leaving chloride on the surface won't show up in a week or a month, but more likely, a year or two.

What experimenting I've done in the DIY context, I have shared on this forum and others, and can be summarised as follows;
>I've been a big fan of citric for years ( I first read about it in the early 1980's)
>I've been a huge fan of zinc phosphate primer for years (note how eventually, they started putting zinc phospahte in expoxies!).
>I've had mixed results with phosphoric acid (no longer using it regularly)
>I've had mixed results with electrolysis
>I'm on a learning curve with my grit-blaster and needle gun.

I've not tried Evaporust; it looks good, not sure I'll leave citric for it, but open to persuasion.

10 minutes ago, I was painting a brake caliper. It's a new one with shiny plating (which does not last!!!), so that was primed with Hammerite Speciality Metals primer (possibly the only product that company now makes that's worth using) and then a black gloss top-coat.

This is experience which started by owning a Vauxhall Viva back in the 1970's; cars rusted a lot back then. The two cars I have at the moment are both over 20 years old, and get by MoT's with no advisories on corrosion. When I work on my cars, I assume and intend they will still be around when I'm gone, so a problem that will show up in 2 or 3 years is a problem. I also read a lot of technical papers and text books on corrosion (I've recommended certain books on this forum).

A huge amount of time and money has already been spent researching corrosion, which has given rise to damage costing many billions for many decades. The progress that has been made shows when you compare the corrosion resistance of a 1960's car with a modern one .

 

[ukracer]

Update on my old evaporust.
It's made all my damn collets go black but they also have some yellow stuff forming on parts of the surface.
I suspect it might be grease but not sure.
So have new evapo coming on Wednesday however I would like to see if I can get one collet cleaned up.
How do people remove any black stuff. It's not converted rust as even the ones with little rust have gone black.

Obviously being collets any manual cleaning needs to be gentle and it's going to be hard to get inside.
I do think the collets come apart as they are held by large spring clips. But are separated by small spring clips.

Any suggestions?

 

[ukracer]

This is citric acid on really heavy rust on the rear suspension from an Alfa 159.

Before

View attachment 408957

View attachment 408958

After a good going over with a neddle gun to remove the scale.
I think the citric acid softens the scale and will make it easier to neddle gun off, but I don't see the point of not taking the worst off before dipping.

View attachment 408960View attachment 408959

Into a bin with about 100l of water and 6kgs of citric acid on Monday night.

View attachment 408961

Took it out this morning (3.5 days later) and gave the bits a quick power wash.

View attachment 408962

View attachment 408963

There's an aluminium bush in the arm so I don't fancy dipping that, but I will blast it and let the whole arm ginger up to see if there's any differences.
I assume the citric acid will be better at removing salts from the rust pits, but we will see.

All in all very impressive, if a bit slow, but I wasn't waiting on it.
I used citric on this because there are parts that are impossible to blast and the acid seems to work everywhere.

Electrolysis won't work inside closed section although I've had good results on open panels.

View attachment 408964

How come yours does not stay black?