The Camaro Club (UK)

Just bought some NOS Moog tie rods.
They were quite rusty - just surface rust, but all the way down the screw thread. Enough to make me not want to screw them into anything for fear of them galling.
Yes, I could've run an oiled nut up and down them a few times.
But instead, I'm giving electrolytic rust removal a go.

It's apparently pretty easy - rusty metal part becomes the cathode (-) and the carbon stick becomes the anode (+).
Take a plastic bucket. Add a solution of water and Soda Crystals, insert the parts to be de-rusted, hook up your battery charger and walk away.
I've taken care not to let my copper coated croc clips touch the solution, and the tie rods dangling off a steel coat hanger.

I've done a bit of reading, and you can use a sacrificial iron piece to replenish the iron lost to rust, but apparently as soon as you remove it from the solution, the piece will start rusting, so you need to be ready to coat it as soon as it's removed and dried.
Apparently the carbon anode gets round this, and prevents the piece from rusting. Either way, I'm going to give them a coat of hammerite (apart from the thread).

I've just set the system running, and so far nothing's gone bang or caught light, so this far in I'm calling it a victory.
I'll check in the morning to see if I am improving the state of the part, or I'm just going to have to buy a new one after all.

A rather less sophisticated result here with

http://www.classiccamaroclubuk.com/phpB ... ilit=+rust
or:
"I have recently discovered the most amazingly effective home made RUST REMOVER!

Just mix up Harpic DURAGUARD lavatory cleaner with Coka cola and drop your rusty nuts and bolts in the mix

_________________
Kind Regards
TopCat
Secretary
Classic Camaro Club
Member of The Association of American Car Clubs UK
Email :tboles@strathnoon.co.uk Websites: http://www.classiccamaroclubuk.com and:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhLJtR_ZY4

does that really work....? I have heard of using coke with other stuff but never took it seriously..

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

sure does

I rescued all my UNC nuts and bolts this way
mind you post the clean up they need to be kept wd40'd to prevent the rust reappearing (or painted)

_________________
Kind Regards
TopCat
Secretary
Classic Camaro Club
Member of The Association of American Car Clubs UK
Email :tboles@strathnoon.co.uk Websites: http://www.classiccamaroclubuk.com and:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhLJtR_ZY4

Spot of an update on this:

To start with, I was using a Halfords charger. It was too clever by half, and wasn't supplying the current. So my bits sat in the solution for a day not doing very much.
So when I got home, I got an old ATX PC power supply. These things chuck out 12v at about 18A and are pretty simple to set up.
If anyone's interested, you need to look at the great big plastic plug that would normally connect to the PC mother board. There will be a single green wire. This needs to be shorted to the adjacent black wire.
Now, any of the yellow wires will supply 12v, and the black wires provide an earth.

So I hooked the carbon rod to the yellow 12v and the tie rod to the black earth.

After 24hrs, the part looked like this (untreated is on the right for comparison):