Well, I decided to give it a shot, and boy does it work. I will get more pics tomorrow of what it does to the part, but here is what it looks like after being in the tank for about 10 hours. I am doing an upper control arm. It seemed to work really well, it helps to take the part out once in a while and clean off all of the loose rust. I first tried with a wire brush, but realized that's too tedious, and I needed to use something with guts. So I got out the pressure washer and put on the narrow tip and it really cleaned it up well. It takes it right down to bare metal, I'm thinking about 24 hours for each control arm will do fine. Hopefully I'll have the first one finished tomorrow to show you start to finish.

http://project71.net/skeeveman/Temp/RustRemoval.jpg

Was that the deal they did on "Truck"? Baking soda and a battery charger?

I'm thinking they did that on there, but I got the idea off of another forum a while back. There's pages all over on the net showing how it's done, I just wanted to try it for myself.

I've done it several times and it does work pretty good. The solution is made with super washing soda which is sodium carbonate. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. I've seen it suggested to use baking soda as a substitute as the super washing soda can be hard to find. I also read that if you take baking soda and spread it out in a shallow pan then put it in the oven at 325 degrees for one hour you will bake out the additives and will be left with the sodium carbonate. I've also tried soaking small parts such as bolts and screws in white vinegar and that also worked well but that takes longer, maybe 4 days or so.

What do you do with the crud that's left over? that looks nasty!

K

What do you do with the crud that's left over? that looks nasty!

K
I read that you can dump it on your grass as it is not toxic and your grass wil love it as it is full of iron.

As soon as I can get my hands on a DC welder with a 100% duty, I'll be doing, my doors, fender, core support, trunklid, hood, etc...

I read that you can dump it on your grass as it is not toxic and your grass wil love it as it is full of iron.
Yep.. Just be sure to wash it in...

There was a place here that was doing entire bodies. They've since moved, but after a couple days and a few dipping/rinsing cycles, the body of my '65 LeMans looked awesome. I'm suprised this isn't at least as popular as chemical dipping/stripping used to be for entire car bodies. The dip tanks the shop that did my car was using used to be chemical dip tanks, and they simply converted them over to electrolysis.

~Scotch~

Alright, here's some pics of the results.

This is a what has surfaced after 24 hours.
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20001%20(Large).jpg

And here you can see what it does to the sacrificial anode (the fence cage, lol)
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20005%20(Large).jpg

These are what the control arms looked like before they were dunked in there. This one is actually the one that is soaking right now, but it was identical to the one I've already done.
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20008%20(Large).jpg
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20009%20(Large).jpg

These pics are after it's been in there for 24 hours. A couple times during the process I pulled it out and blasted it with the pressure washer. This was after the final time.

http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20011%20(Large).jpg
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20012%20(Large).jpg

And here it is after I spent about 5 minutes with a wire wheel on it.
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20015%20(Large).jpg
http://project71.net/skeeveman/suspension/Control_Arms/Rust%20Removal/2008-04-14%20016%20(Large).jpg

I think it ended up working pretty well. Would have went faster if I used the sand blaster, but this is a lot less work and much easier on the part.

Neat!

But I think I woulda POR'd it and been done with it.

Looks good! I use electrolysis all the time in my other hobby "metal detecting" as I find a lot of old IRON relics. :) Good job!

Jake, how much powder did you use vs. water? I have seen the Trucks episode. Is it the same formula?

Chris, I don't know what the Trucks episode said to use, but I assume it is the same as the websites I have read about the process. They call for I think 1 tablespoon of washing soda/sodium carbonate per gallon. Many of the sites said that regular baking soda was a good substitute, and that's exactly what I did, and it worked fine. The mixture doesn't have to be on the money or anything, in fact, since I have a bad habit of overdoing things, I actually put in quite a bit more than that I would assume, since I just guesstimated how much to use.

It's really cool watching it in person. As soon as you hook up the battery charger, you can see the part to fizz more and more, then you hear it bubble. Within 30 minutes there's a fair amount of crud layering up at the top of the water. When I swapped to the second control arm, I just scooped out the layer, left the water in there, added some more baking soda to the mixture, and started the process all over again.

Any suggested web sites on this article and practice? How does this process work with painted items? Does it remove the paint?

This one is probably the best overall article out there.

http://www3.telus.net/public/aschoepp/electrolyticrust.html

This one is good as well.

http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tools/Electrolysis.htm

good stuff! just becareful (Hydrogen/Oxygen by products) are both flammable and explosive!

I've also used this method with good results. Got my info from the 'Stovebolt' website. A word of caution that isn't mentioned in the first link. If you use a stainless steel anode, the solution is extremely toxic and illegal to dump just anywhere.

Always wanted to try this.

Safe and easy- just dont blow yourself up or stick your hands in the alkaline solution..hmmm SCARRRRRRRRRRRY