Originally Posted by
nlerner
From what you describe, an OA bath sounds like it might be overkill. Your plan sounds good to me. You could also treat any rust areas with something like
Evaporust, which will chemically convert the surface to something benign.
Second that. It's better not just to remove the rust because it will just rust again. For inconspicuous parts I use Vactan (available on eBay) which is a mixture of tannic acid and organic binders. It converts red rust Fe[SUB]2[/SUB]O[SUB]3[/SUB] to black rust Fe[SUB]3[/SUB]O[SUB]4[/SUB] and binds it together. It works very well and will protect parts indefinitely, even in very wet conditions.
Here is a fork I treated a few days ago. I brushed Vactan on the exposed steel areas, including the inside of the tube:
It dries hard and can be painted directly.