I know it's been a while.... The pedals came out great! So good in fact that I decided to look around the shop and find some more to soak in the Evapo Rust. I have used this product before. I believe it was marketed under the name"Saferust". The nice thing about it is there are no fumes and nothing caustic .
Can be used over and over.
Most of these pedals had fairly deep rust. Some were frozen and would not rotate.
After a 2 day soak they were washed off and loose grime was brushed off under running water with a fiber brush.
No wire brushing or steel wool. What amazed me was the amount of pure rust that washed out from beneath the sheet metal sleeve and bearing cups. All the pedals now spin freely. With a few drops of oil they should be fine.
The other bonus was when I first got the pedals out of the solution the rubber blocks felt slimy to the touch, leaving my hands as if dipped in black paint. Not that I like my hands looking like that. It was after they were washed did I realize what was happening.
After scrubbing each pedal down a fair amount of "dead rubber" and grime washed off the blocks leaving them looking excellent with no damage.
I let them dry off and could not ask for better results. The blocks dried hard with no residue.
The chain rings unfortunately were missing most of their plating. The Evapo rust did remove all the rust with only a scrubbing with the fiber brush and water.
The total amount of pedals being done will be 44. plus the chain rings and 2 cranks.
I have 3/4 of the original gallon of solution left.
I give this product 4 stars. Price with tax was about $25 for a gallon. Was purchased at O' Reilly Auto Parts.
I do intend to try the lime juice. I have one more batch shown above to soak.
These pedals turned out great with.....no disassembly, no dangerous wire wheel work and no effort.