Oxalic Acid Bath Help

[SirMike1983]

The bath can be used until it turns a yellow color. It gradually loses potency (clear to cloudy off-white to yellow) and has to be replaced.

You can indeed over soak chrome, the telltale sign being a dulled finish with yellow build up here and there. You can over strengthen the bath as well, the tell tale sign being a yellow crust forming on the surface of parts. You want to balance the strength of the mixture with the duration. Chrome is more forgiving than screwing up with paint or decals (it can turn destructive with certain paints and decals).

Overnight would be a pretty aggressive treatment with a normal bath, but if you made yours kind of weak, the longer soak was OK. The parts should be rinsed clean in cold water after the soak to prevent a yellow crust from forming.

You'll need to protect the fender wells before final assembly of the bike. Bare fender wells are notorious for rusting again if the bike is ridden much.

 

[Oldbikeguy1960]

Perhaps I am not overdoing my mixture but I have left chrome for 2-3 days in the bath and it comes out as good as I could hope for considering its condition before I started.
Any residue I have had would clean off with a light WD-40 or similar chemical streel wool rub and actually looks better yet to my 62 year old welders eyes.
you can also use baking soda/water mjx to neutralize acid bath but do not overdo it.
I concur on the inner fender rust, clear coat it or wax the crap out of it. If you wax that is not permanent.

 

[Kevinkay]

Whats the consensus on best wax?
I started off using Glass Wax (because thats what I used on my bike when I was a kid) but after looking at my car in the rain after about 2 months and water is still beading I am going to use the same Meguiars ceramic I used on the car - directions say can be used on chrome.

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

I have always used Meguaires products. you can't go wrong there.

 

[Rivnut]

The OA solution works much better the warmer the water. Fenders come clean fairly easily. On the inside, I use Eastwood Companies Diamond Clear for bare metals. For smaller parts, I picked up an old crock pot at the local Good Will. Turn it on low, it doesn’t take long.