Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

[Tom K.]

I'm getting ready to pull the body off of my 67 conv. and was wondering if anyone has used Eastwood rust dissolver on frames, control arms, and other rusty parts. I was wondering if it was a reasonable alternative to media blasting and what kind of results to expect. I'm not going for NCRS restoration as this is a NOM car and I just want a fun safe driver. I plan to do most of the work including paint and the needed minor body work myself. I tried to search the archives for this info, but didn't find much. If anyone has used this product, I would like to hear about it. Thanks for any input.
Tom Kreyling

[Ronald L.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

I tried the safest rust remover and can't say it took any rust off.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

I tried the safest rust remover and can't say it took any rust off.

Did you use it like they show on their web site?

http://safestrustremover.com/howto.asp

The Safest Rust Remover, and I assume also the Eastwood stuff, must either be "washed" over the item or the item must be immersed. You can't just brush it on the item and wait to see what happens. Nothing will happen.

I've used the Safest on many items. The results depend on how thick the rust and how long you let it sit. For many items it can work well.

Patrick

[Ronald L.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

Soaking wet rag left there for 4 weeks, changed 2 to 3 times a week.

To discover what remained of the axle stamp code, I had a small cup shape with rag to keep it saturated, changing that one daily, again over a month.

To me something so dilute that you can bathe in it is just that - bath water.

They are selling essentially a bottle of water - worse is they give absolutely no indication what-so-ever of what the product is.

The ONLY reason for that is that if you knew, every one could go out to the local pharmacy and get what they are using.

This so reminds me of the days all those snake oil salesmen made their way through our office at the general selling all sorts of synthetic additives that were generally hog wash.

If I only had access to that lab in an hour I could tell you what they were using. From the smell it is like an extremely dilute phosphoric acid that perhaps they have buffered to a phosphate soup.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

For various reasons I don't think you used it in the way it's supposed to be used.

Take a small jar ( I have used a baby food jar or whatever) and put something rusty in there. Check it out tomorrow and see what it looks like.

There are times I'll hit an item with the beadblaster first and finish it off with the rust remover. Works fine then too.

[Ronald L.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

Sooooooooooo

If you see their advert. they pull rust off chrome.

So trial #3 - I have this less than 2mm round random spot surface rust on some otherwise polished chrome fasteners and I did just that. Three days.

Rust is still there and these were perfectly clean, no oil excuse.

Nor was my frame greasy in the stamp area either, pure rust, it did not touch it at all and we wanted this to work so as to have the best chance of seeing and rescuing the original stamps - they are still under the rust.

If we want to go to inorganic Chem 201, we can - if you wan to do something with Fe2O3, you have to have something in the water that eats Fe2O3

When I have time I'll get this in a forensics lab and also let you know the pH.

[Mike M.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

If this stuff is really phosphoric acid. It may actually be doing some good.
I can't remember the trade name, someting like .... phos, but, the first time I used it, it didn't look like it was working.
I even sanded the surface, which left rust remaining in the lowly pitted areas.
What it was doing was removing the rust and leaving a black finish that looked just like the rust when it was wet.
Actually, this was sealing the metal so it is ready for priming and painting.
I have since used it repeatedly with good results.
HaND

[Dan D.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

I believe the Eastwood product you are refering to is called "Metal Ready". If so, I have been using it all last year.
But you cannot just brush it on and 'poof', off goes the rust. It doesn't work that way. In fact it will not remove heavy rust at all. The way I found it to work is to first blast or wire wheel the part to get most of the rust off. Then immerse it in the stuff for at least overnight. Then wash it off and prime/paint.
This stuff is more of a pre-primer than a rust remover. It deposits a Zinc Phosphate coating on the metal that provides a base for their POR15 paint to adhere to, and also the Zinc prevents moisture penetration, which is what causes the coating to fail.
I have cleaned and painted lots of stuff this way - mostly hardware. This is how I found it to work. It is not a magic cure and you are not going to immerse anything very big. Their poop sheets say you can just spray it on for 30 minutes or so, then wash it off and paint it. The paint will adhere right over the rust. Don't know. I just cannot bring myself to bare painting over rust. -Dan-

[Mike M.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

Forgot to mention the apparent strength of the product I used.
Highly acidic, no skin contact, rubber gloves only!
If this doesn't work, try your favorite soda pop.
Read the label, one of the educational channel programs stated it's the phosphoric acid content that helps creates the soda bubbles.
HaND

[Patrick H.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

You couldn't pay me to use POR-15.

[Dan D.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

I need to correct the posting I made last night. I should know better than to write at 11 o'clock at night.
The Metal Ready will not remove rust. It works best as a pre-primer Zinc Phosphate like I said.
The stuff I have been using for the over night immersion is called Evapo-rust. Available at auto stores and Tractor Supply. So my process has been to blast/wire wheel most of it off first. Then an overnight in the Evapo-rust. Rinse with water, spray on a de-greasser followed by the Metal Ready. Then rinse and you can prime/paint. This process seems to work okay for paint, it is not what you would use for plating.
Rich, just curious about your POR15 comment. What don't you like about it? -Dan-

[Peter J.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

I am curious too about POR-15. Fifteen years ago when new to the hobby I used on frame components that I had just sand blasted and the stuff looks like I put it on yesterday, no chipping, flaking or peeling.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

Search the Archives (and internet) for more, but in short POR-15 is not UV light resistant so it fades, and is impossible to remove when you want to. There was a test done a few years back and published in Auto Restorer magazine (which I subscribe) that tested POR-15 vs Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. Eastwood's product was the obvious winner and the results mirrored my own findings. So, I have cans of POR-15 I'll never use sitting on the shelf.

[Peter J.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

Don't waste them I'll take them. I can only comment on my own experience with the product. Fifteens years is a pretty good durability record. Now when I painted my seat frames and and reassembled and was testing the seat retractor a section of POR-15 stripped right off. My theory was the steel was to smooth of a surface for the stuff to get a bite, hence the instruction to roughen up the surface.

[Ronald L.]

Re: Use of Eastwood rust Dissolver

From the factory that steel was just fine and the paint stuck if the painter was following their process. Generally that means a hot wash to remove the stamping lube and pre stamp coil anti rust. Then they go through a hot phos and paint.

Best these days is to find someone doing e coat.

I cannot comment on the PO15 but if it not UV stable it has no use being outside a house let alone on a car, nor does it sound like the prep was proper to get a basic paint from the hardware store to stick if it is coming off as described.

One simple test is let your your paint cure 72 hours put a piece of masking tape on it and pull. If your paint is coming off, you are not doing the surface prep properly.