Cleaning prep for paint

[Jason leach]

Hi all, I've been practicing awhile now before I embark on my VW project. I have made up a few nail flowers for the garden. Can someone advise how I can clean these things ready to paint? A few will be rusty but I fancy painting some. I was thinking of a mild acid bath? Photo below hopefully! Thanks Jason

 

[marlinspike]

A citric acid bath might work well enough. You can buy it in bags on eBay very cheaply. I have used Bilt Hamber Deox C powder as well and thought it worked better than citric acid, though it is basically the same thing. You will have trouble finding a big enough receptacle to put the whole sculpture in though, plus you would use the whole bag of citric acid powder. You could maybe use a bucket or tall thin bin and do a few spokes at a time.

An alternative would be to just get busy with sandpaper or a wire cup on a drill, or a power file, and strip it by hand.

Screwfix do a cheap No Nonsense Galvanising Zinc spray that I have used a few times. Aldi do a very good straight to metal aerosol in black, white, and grey/green too.