The Hodaka Club Forum

I was watching American restoration the other night and at a commercial there was a question on what will take rust off of metal? The answer was cider vinegar. So off to the store I go, came home with 3 gal. jugs and dumped them in my wombat tank. Four days later I dumped it out and HOLY @%^&*%$# the junk and rust that came out was crazy. I then sprayed it out at the car wash put some WD40 in it to stop the rust from starting again. I can't believe how clean the tank is now. DG

Hello, you might consider, going this site Strickly Hodaka, and see the great tank rust
prevention and saving products they sell, some of the best stuff on the market.
Tank a look. Bruce Hodakaparts.com Idaho.

What kind of coating does it put in the tank? DG

Many has sworn by this product....

http://www.evaporust.com/

Rick

Rustol (available on Paul's site) is great - not sure of the ingredients
Most de-rusting products are some sort of acid-based product (ACV is a mild acidic)
I have a lot of luck with phosphoric acid (prep etch, has lots of brand names) - cheap and easy to get at the local Home Depot - like Rustol and others, it can be re-used multiple times. Phos acid works relatively fast - minutes for mild rust, hours for worse ones, no harm to the metal.
There are lots of products and tons of recipes out there - agitation, abrasion, and acid are at the core of most of them.
I've used Muriatic acid for really bad tanks - that stuff is nasty - it will stain chrome, foams up, and is much more prone to flash rusting, so it's important to neutralize it with baking soda quick.
For me, the recipe goes: acid/agitation/abrasion, then neutralization, then good flush, then acetone, then blow it dry with an air hose, then WD40 or premix to coat.
FWIW, I hate tank liners - they never hold up and often trap rust and gunk. Maybe I'm only seeing ones not done properly. Though I will say recently a tank treated at a radiator shop "professionally done" was the worst I've ever seen.
There are lots of folks that posted some really neat ideas and techniques for rusty tanks on the old forum - maybe they will chime in.
-Laurie

Thanks for the the info Laurie and Rick.

flyingdg wrote:I was watching American restoration the other night and at a commercial there was a question on what will take rust off of metal? The answer was cider vinegar. So off to the store I go, came home with 3 gal. jugs and dumped them in my wombat tank. Four days later I dumped it out and HOLY @%^&*%$# the junk and rust that came out was crazy. I then sprayed it out at the car wash put some WD40 in it to stop the rust from starting again. I can't believe how clean the tank is now. DG

Congrats! You have found my secret. The cheapest AND best rust remover on the planet. This is an acid. You must use plenty of water to neutralize it.