I am repairing a single speed ladies bike (1963). It's not a major restoration, but more of a repair and fixup. Initially I thought the chain was ruined. No regular chain cleaning dissolved the layers of dirt and rust, not even white spirit, but after two days in a bottle with WD40 it came out surprisingly clean. Those 8-shaped links are now a bluish metal, and hardly any traces of rust at all elsewhere, and it doesn't look too worn for further use. This cleaning was probably not worth it costwise, as a new chain would be about the same as the different cleaners and oils involved to get it clean. I started with undiluted dishwasher soap and hot water, then turned to a bio chain cleaner, then white spirit, then WD40; so it was a sort of trial and error approach. It was really hard to get the stuck on grime and rust off, sand included. I should probably have gone for WD40 straight a way (or something equivalent), two overnight baths of this stuff and it was clean (new oil and bottle the next night). I used almost an entire large can though. Have any of you found a cost effective way to clean really old difficult dirt?
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