Vinegar Bath Risks

[pedalpower17]

I'm cleaning up a mid 50s Western Flyer Deluxe and am thinking of soaking the fork in undiluted vinegar in order to remove rust and crud from the slots on the fork's crown. The fork is the only painted component that would receive this treatment. The plan is to soak over night, no longer than 8 hours. For those with experience cleaning with vinegar, is there any concern of discoloring the paint (i.e. no longer matches the frame)? Damaging the paint? Damaging the red W logo on each blade? Anything else to be concerned about?

 

[gkeep]

Hi,
I'm a fan of wood bleach/oxalic acid. IT's worked well and I'm about to use it on a 54 Monark Rocket in much worse shape. Your bike has beautiful paint and I'd think it might be worth your while to spring for a gallon of Evaporust and make sure you save that paint and logo. My neighbor who is a retired machinist is a fan of evaporust for restoring vintage tools from hand saws to pre war milling machines. He also has preserved vintage bikes.

Good luck whichever route you choose.

Gary

 

[ZE52414]

I'd say wd40 and OOOO steel wool would do the trick. Yours isn't that bad at all.

 

[pedalpower17]

Hi,
I'm a fan of wood bleach/oxalic acid. IT's worked well and I'm about to use it on a 54 Monark Rocket in much worse shape. Your bike has beautiful paint and I'd think it might be worth your while to spring for a gallon of Evaporust and make sure you save that paint and logo. My neighbor who is a retired machinist is a fan of evaporust for restoring vintage tools from hand saws to pre war milling machines. He also has preserved vintage bikes.

Good luck whichever route you choose.

Gary

Thanks, Gary. I'd never heard of Evaporust. I'm going to give it a try.

 

[pedalpower17]

I'd say wd40 and OOOO steel wool would do the trick. Yours isn't that bad at all.

I've used that combo before on chromed parts, but not such a good solution when trying to get into the open slots on the crown of this fork.

 

[GTs58]

When I was in grade school I soaked a hard boiled egg in vinegar for a few days and then I could bounce the hard boiled egg on the floor like a rubber ball, shell and all.

 

[vincev]

That fork looks like a little WD40 and fine steel wool will work best.

 

[pedalpower17]

That fork looks like a little WD40 and fine steel wool will work best.

I try to avoid steel wool on paint. Also, hard or impossible to use steel wool between the layers of the crown.

 

[bikemonkey]

I suggest using a citric acid solution (found in the canning section at Wal-Mart) and a stiff bristle brush with long bristles for the area you describe - I use a carpet hand brush. You should use a brass brush/citric acid on chrome. This is the safest and best rust remover I have found. Do not soak anything for a long time unless you must, as your results mat vary. I dissolved all of the thin chrome off of a very rusty pie plate leaving it soaking overnight a few months ago...

I have tried Evaporust - not impressed.

Steel wool (anything steel) can scratch and dull chrome although I use #0000 wool and oil on a lot of components. Use a razor blade on tough rust speckles by carefully scraping them off.

 

[ram.1950]

I've used White Vinegar a lot but I don't recommend using it on painted parts. It won't eat the paint but it will get under the paint to eat the metal and that lifts the paint off. It works best when you can submerge the whole piece but beware of leaving it unattended for very long. As an experiment I threw a totally rusted crank in a tub and put the lid on. When I checked it a couple months later all the rust was gone - so were the crank ends where the pedals mount.