That shit works.

Yup, I was surprised the first time I used it. Thought I was overpaying at $22/gallon, but the stuff works like magic.

Yeah, it works awesome. Especially if you are repainting metal items. It typically removes some of the original "shine" but you can usually polish it back with rubbing compounds.

You can reuse it many times if you pour it through a coffee filter to pull out the rust particles. So in the long run the $22 a gallon price isn't too bad. I've been using the heck out of the Evapo-Rust I have.

You can polish the bolts with either Brasso or Turtle Wax Chrome Polish. It's what I use.

So once you use it, do you need to seal the metal with anything? I know I've wire-brushed off things before and if you don't clear it, you get surface rust almost immediately.

I have used it on legs with slight surface rust and just make sure to clean them off with soapy water and then water after the 24hr soak in CLR/evapo. I dry them immediately and then put on a quick layer of wax and wipe it off. So far not rust has returned.

The evaporust has paid for itself in bringing back life to probably 12 sets of legs so far.

Absolutely. Anytime you have rust, no matter how you take it off, any protective coating that was there is gone. Evaporust (used correctly for the correct amount of time) doesn't eat off *additional* protective coating like other more harsh chemicals but the damage was already done with the rust. It will re-flash rust in time, from hours to days to weeks to a month, but it does.

I have run many things through it from chrome legs, drop target and flipper assemblies, above PF stainless steel, lock down bars and the like. It will look better and won't egregiously rust looking like it did before cleaning, but make no mistake it will re-rust with a thin coating in most cases. You will need to seal with oil, grease, paint/clear-coat or re-electrolicize with a inhibitor of some type if you want it to keep the just-cleaned look.

Anyone got rec's on products/process they use for this?

I've got things I've run through Evaporust nearly three years ago, and they look exactly like they did the day I took them out of the bath.

Can anyone recommend a national chain store that typically carries Evaporust? Thanks.

I've been a big fan of Evaporust for years.

If you're interested in de-rusting legs, get yourself some 3" PVC pipe along with caps to seal the top and bottom. Glue the bottom cap. Evaporust does evaporate quickly so don't leave it exposed. Wax them afterwards.

Nice legs!

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O'Reillys Auto Parts

Thanks!

Harbor Freight also sells it. It ends up being around $22 after the obligatory 20% off coupon.

Yep, this stuff is pretty impressive!

Humm. Well, all 3 of my lockdown receiver bars flash rusted within a week to a month after removing the soda/beer/syrup then soaking in Evaporust. Parts of some drop target assemblies have done the same, as did a rusted lockdown bar. I haven't gone and checked everything but unless you keep humidity very low I would expect them all to rust without recoating somehow.

Don't get me wrong, Evaporust is great but the process doesn't stop there to keep it great looking.

Well, they're in a basement that runs about 40 percent humidity on average. That's not particularly low at all.

I've specifically done the Evaporust bath to lockdown receivers on every game I've restored within that time frame. I did nothing afterwards to seal them, just used a little scotchbrite pad work to shine them up, and there is no rust.

I don't know what you're doing with yours, but I have no rust returning at all.

Supposedly apple cider vinegar works, and is much cheaper.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-do-you-remove-rust-from-legs/page/2

I've yet to try it, I have the PVC, just need to get the caps.

I would think that might be too acidic, and might cause some pitting.

The only time I've used vinegar in a recipe for removing black tarnish on brass, and that was diluted with water, and also included some salt and baking soda (I can't remember what the exact recipe was off the top of my head, though).

Again - if you have not tried this stuff you are missing out. It frigging works.
Had a nasty lockdown bar on my High hand project - made a dip tube from a 4" PVC tube & dunked it overnight. Holy crap! it's magic!
Probably will spray it with some clear sealer to prevent future rusting.

that's a good price. Here it's $25 a gallon. I'm ordering some now. Love this stuff.

This stuff is amazing I have saved many a rusted part especially legs with this stuff. The 3" PVC pipe with caps is also what I use for legs.

Joe(acejedi)

Pro tip. And PLEASE learn from my mistake! Ha. I thought I was an ok pipe sealer....nope. The first time I tried it a bunch gooshed out. Luckily I had bought an additional small bottle of it. All in all I think I lost a quart. Not the end of the world but $9 gone in a flash. Ha. So I went back to Lowes and found these sweet end caps. Works well!!
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Can we review what you guys recommend to do to parts after they come out of the bath? I seen a few different opinions.

Once you take it out, you rinse it down, dry, and then use Brasso to shine it up again? Will the brasso help seal it to reduce the possibility of it re-rusting? Or is it carnuaba wax the stuff that seals it from re-rusting?

I bought a bottle of the evapo-rust and look forward to restoring my metal parts.

Thanks guys!

Rise, dry, then either toss in a tumbler and hand-polish and/or buff on a buffing wheel.

After that, I usually wax them.

You can also clear coat them or spray them with polyurethane. However--polyurethane dulls it and your mirror shine won't be a mirror shine any more.

Evapo-Rust -> Rinse with warm water -> Dry off -> Polish with either Brasso or chrome polish. That's what I do and it works well for me.

Great Thanks Forceflow and Ken! If I don't have access to a tumbler or have pieces to large for a tumbler, or even a buffing wheel, is there a way I can do it by hand? Sorry I'm such a newbie here.

Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish (either amazon or walmart) and microfiber towels

http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Microfiber-Cleaning-Cloth-Pack/dp/B009FUF6DM

You should really think about a tumbler and buffing wheel. Doing *everything* by hand will take a considerable amount of time.

I have just joined the Cult, starting reassembly of my Genie and all of the parts have just general rust on them. The lockdown bar receiver in particular looked pretty nasty before.. did a soak overnight and its not "new" by any means, but looks so much better.

For really thick layers of rust, you may need to soak in evaporush, then wash and brush the part to clean off the loose rust, then soak again and repeat.

yep...+1 on that. I have soaked for 24-48 hours....then wipe, scrape, and back in the stew again. Really does make sh*tty legs decent.

I'm going through this process on a rusty backglass lift channel right now. It's slow going, but there is gradual improvement.

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I seriously considered the evaporust thing but eventually decided to go an other way since i had everything i needed in house without having to spend a penny.

This is what I acheived with water, baking soda, an old piece of steel, a car battery charger and a pad of Scotchbright.

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Plug the negative to the leg, the positive to the old piece of steel and let her rip.
There is a battery in series with the charger on my pictures, but that proved unnecessary.

This being an evaporust post, I won't elaborate any more. But here is all the info you may wish for:

http://users.eastlink.ca/~pspencer/nsaeta/electrolysis.html

I went bare minimum on process control and turned out pretty good for me.

The nice thing about this is that you can't damage the metal, just like evaporust. Unless you reverse the polarity....
This and more or less zero cost meant it was a no brainer to give it a try.

Pm me if you need more info.

As far as preventing re-rust here is was I am contemplating:
https://sites.google.com/site/donsairbrushtips/future-floor-polish
Have a look at the last picture.

I get my Evaporust at $9.99 a gallon and $3.99 for 32oz's. Great stuff!!!

Where?!?

The cheapest I've seen it is $23 at advanced auto.

It's awesome that you set this up, but this is a reason why I often just buy new legs. You can get pretty good results cleaning legs a number of ways, but I rarely think the result is worth the effort when a shiny brand new leg is $10 a pop. I like Evaporust though because it's nearly zero effort and can be stored in a 3" tube.

Where can it be bought that cheap? Lowest I've seen was $22.99 for a gallon at O'Reilly's Auto Parts stores.

I finally made up a few PVC pipes and put ER to the test. I was a bit skeptical but it's made anything that's not already pitted look like new. I have some old system 11 legs that cleaned up to look like new. Did a lockdown bar that had underside rust that came out great and a 70's Bally chrome lift channel that was rough come out pretty nice. Excellent stuff!

And no, I haven't seen it for cheaper then $23 at my local Advance Auto either.

Ollie's

Ollies

Unfortunately, the nearest Ollies is 1900 miles away.

May be more cost effective to go to O'Reilly's than drive out there.

Definitely release the gas pressure from the pvc pipe each night. I let mine sit over the weekend because I was busy. When I went to pick up the pipe, the bottom cap popped right off. I lost a gallon all over the garage.