Originally Posted by
wrk101
I commonly use a small bath of oxalic on misc parts and forks. I've done a couple dozen forks that way. Much easier than a full sized OA bath.
+1. I just picked up a barn-fresh Fuji Touring Series V today. Pretty good condition, but a good dose of surface rust that warrants stripping all the parts from the frame and a oxalic acid soak. This evening, while I was dissassembling, I had a bucket next to me, every time I came to a clip or something that looked like it could use a soak, I tossed it in the bucket. When I was done, I filled the bucket w/oxalic solution, and then stuck the fork in upside down because the crown was a little rusty.
Here is the way the crown looked:
Headset is in the soak right now as well. I think I caught this one just in the nick of time - I'll post some pics tomorrow after the fork is done, guarantee you won't believe it isn't from the same bike.
Oxalic acid is my first choice whereever possible. Cheap, not much labor, non-abrasive. Me, I can't stand the smell of it, so I put it outside. Just gotta make sure you don't put alloy or galvanized stuff in there.