I wanted to comment on using vinegar for rust removal.

Until now I have been using naval jelly on all the rusty bits I am trying to renew when cleaning up old bikes. I have heard about using vinegar but didn't think it would work as well. The last few weeks I have started using white vinegar in a large mouth 2 quart jar, submersing the parts for a few hours.

I am here to report that it does indeed work well.

It is important to get the parts as clean as possible before dipping as greasy parts won't clean up well.

With many parts all that is necessary after dipping is a good brush up with a stiff nylon or brass "tooth brush".

If that doesn't get all the rust off I will sometimes re dip and sometimes if I am in a hurry I will paint on some naval jelly and wait about 15 minutes before cleaning off the part.

I will also dip aluminum parts as it removes surface corrosion and leaves them looking like new.

after cleaning the parts I will sometimes polish them on my buffing wheel. As a last step I will squirt wd40 on everything, work it into the corners, coat the end of a cue tip with it and dig around in the nooks and crannies where the dried grease hides. Wipe everything down with a wd40 soaked rag, and rinse in hot water . This removes any polishing compound. a final squirt and wipe down displaces any water on the part, and coats everything with a thin waxy surface.

One nice feature of Naval Jelly is that it leaves a thin conversion coating of iron phosphate which gives some protection from further corrosion and also is a good base for priming/painting.

Vinegar is dilute acetic acid so it acts as a mild acidic cleaner in the same way as citric acid and phosphoric acid. As dsbrantjr noted, Navel Jelly is a jellied phosphoric acid so it does leave an iron phosphate residue which is a fair corrosion preventative. The phosphatizing surface treatment used by the military to protect weapons and know as "Parkerizing" is a similar process.

It's also good mixed with oil and put on a salad.

Naval jelly on a salad? No, thank you.

Yeah, but why doesn't it take the rust off lettuce

When the vinegar and naval jelly run out, grab a can of Coke, the soda. Works well to remove rust. The only down-side is you have to make sure you wash it off thoroughly.

I used to use Coke with wadded-up aluminum foil when I was a young kid to remove rust from my bike. Check this out. Folks still do that:

https://snapguide.com/guides/remove-...ith-coca-cola/


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Coke, in addition to a small effect from carbonation (carbonic acid), contains phosphoric acid.

This thread is kind of ironic because just today, my gf showed me how to get rid of hard water stains on a cultured marble sink. She poured some vinegar on the stains and they were gone in 5 minutes, sink looks like new. When she showed me I just started laughing, so I had to show her this thread.