Alright, so to followup on my previous thread, I went with the general consensus and did an Oxalic Acid bath to de-rust my frame. I'm halfway done before I can pull it out, but I was wondering what I should do about the residual buildup on the frame.
I've seen and can get rid of the yellow powder chunks and such, but what I'm talking about is white. Almost like a fog on the frame, but only on the painted surfaces. From spot testing, I can't get it off with a light rag, nor a medium toothbrush. I tried a brillopad, and it sort of worked, but I didn't want to mess up the paint. It doesn't engulf the frame, but there is quite a bit of it is placed throughout the surface of the frame.

I was curious if any of you had experience with such a thing, and how you dealt with it.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, and the tub isn't metal, well, it is painted steel, but I put a plastic liner in it, so I don't think it's anything battery like.

yes he is correct, aside from the neutralizing aspect
Water is the best way to remove the residual oxalic crystals.

it's like washing dishes boys, you have to rinse them until the soap is gone.

Alrighty, well I will try the above suggestions. If I still have trouble.. Well, I suppose I'll post it here, haha. Thanks for the help!

If you're getting crystals and greenish-yellow film, you're using too much of the stuff. A little goes a long way.

Neutralize. Rinse with clean water. Rinse again with clean water. The neutralized oxalic acid turns into sodium oxalate - which is poisonous. So rinse it away until gone - and dispose of the rinse safely.

As a chemist, I follow laboratory safety protocol when handling all chemicals. Oxalic acid - which be be found bound-up with other chemicals in nature - is classified as a 'Corrosive' and a 'Hazardous Solid.' If a cat walked in water contaminated with OA, it would irritate their paws. And the cat would lick the area. This will corrode their GI tract and quite likely kill them.

hi david!

Hey, I think I found an answer to the stray cats that poop in my flower bed! Thanks Panthers007


(just kidding of course)

I'll call Dr. Mengle and see if he'll find out...

Just be careful with it. Respect all chemicals. Don't do what some lady does at least once a year: Mixes bleach with ammonia to clean the bathroom. Is found blue later.

^ I did that once myself, in a tiny little bathroom. It was my first apartment, I was not the most experienced when it came to cleaning. I put some blue toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet, then added some bleach. "Look at that, the bleach eliminated the blue color" So of course, I added more of each until the fumes knocked me on my a**. I crawled out of the bathroom and was lucky enough to catch my breath, my girlfriend was home too.

That's just one of the stupid things I have done.

Welp, as it turned out, the white-ish stuff was actually the clearcoat on the frame, so most of it is gone now (clear coat is still there, but I will need to add another). Frame has been framesaved and is drying.

my frame has been sitting in the OA bath for about 12 hours now, how do you know when its gotten rid of the rust inside of the tubes?

Lift the frame in the bath and check the color of what pours out of the interior. This will give you a good idea of what's taking place inside. If it runs out dark-colored - check it again in another hour or two. When it pours out the same ambient color as the rest of the bath, this should indicate it's done the job.

Proceed to the neutralization.

Hmm, when I pulled it out this morning to brush the film off no rust colored water came out, could I be using too dilute a solution? Didn't want to over do it

Excellent depiction there, wrk101. That's exactly what you should see. Take a look with a flashlight if possible.