No kidding? Apple cider vinegar? Well, we were so impressed with the results we made two of those PVC contraptions (we have a lot of legs we want to clean) I think I'll try a side by side comparison. I'd love to use Apple
Cider Vinegar instead! Stay tuned for a "scientific" study...

One thing for sure, no more scrubbing with steel wool and polish. Soaking gets all of those nooks and crannies.

The same $20 worth of evaporust will do hundreds of legs.

Felt light headed and fevered last night. Didn't get to try the aluminum foil/water thing. Might be a blessing in disguise though as the PVC/cider trick seems to have mind-blowing results.

You can also soak a rusty wire ramp in the apple cider with the same results. When you pull the ramp/legs out it still has spots on it and you say to yourself "crap that didn't take it off". Then you take a towel and wipe it off and you say "wow". The wire ramps can be a little more tricky because of the shape. Sometimes I use a small plastic trash can and soak one end and then turn it around and soak the other. My DE Star Wars had some pretty bad wire ramps on it and now they look new.

I have never used evaporust so I can't compare and one may be better that the other depending upon the severity of the rust. I also use the cider vinegar over and over. Not sure how many legs you can do before you would need to swap it out.

Does it have to be PVC or is ABS okay? Lowes only sells 10 ft lengths.

I bought mine at lowes. Didn't pay attention to what it was.

If it's white it's PVC. If it's black it's ABS.

Mine is PVC then.

Damn. I can't even get a 10ft. length of PVC into the car. I'll try Home Depot, maybe they'll have shorter lengths.

Do cars in Canadia not have a front seat and back windows?

I don't need 10ft. I need 4ft. max.

Driving with anything sticking outside of the back windows is illegal. Out of the trunk is fine as long as it's flagged properly.

I'll try ABS. I was just worried that the black colour wouldn't work as well, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

Look at the stores for a seperate section with shorter lengths. I had a 10 ft and asked if they could cut it and they said no....then I went 1 aisle over and they had shorter sections.

PRE EDIT: Illegal?....jesus $&*(@$ing christ man. I wonder if Guy Lafleur worried aboot such things?

The had shorter ABS lengths, which is why I plan to use ABS instead, but the PVC was 10' only. I asked.

There are stupid people everywhere.

Packed_Car.jpg

Then you take the 10' piece walk over to the tool section , grab a hand saw and cut it yourself.

I was thinking the same thing, buy the 10' length, bring a saw with you, and then cut it in the parking lot. Easy enough to do.

Dave

yup... i do this with a lot of stuff... small cars lead to creative solutions...

I can't wait to try this, I have a whole bunch of legs to do. I'll post my before and afters. Can you do all 4 legs at once or just 1 at a time?

Just depends on the diamiter and length of the pipe. I got a 4' foot and had to do 2 at a time.

I can fit 4 legs at a time in a 4" diameter x 36" tube. Though I do usually remove the levelers for the longer legs.

Yes. All 4 will fit. image-918.jpg

My thinking was more in line with "What do I do with the extra 6 ft. of pipe?"

Leave it in the parking lot? I'm no environmentalist, but I don't like waste like this.

How much cider do I need to fill a pipe like this?

Offer it to other Pinsiders who want to make the same thing.

I'd also say give it to other Pinsiders.

In the 3" diameter, 3 foot long version I made, one gallon of Evapo-Rust just fills it. If you've got a 4" diameter one then you'll definitely need more than a gallon of whatever you decide to use in it.

I take them to my powder coat place,
they sand blast it and powder coat them.

The 10ft. length is $10. I'll have 7 extra feet. I'll offer it up to other Pinsiders, but they would have to be local as it would cost me an arm and a leg to ship even to the next city over.

I was thinking of doing this. The results posted here using some basic groceries are quite good though.

You may want to go longer than 3 feet if you plan on doing four 31" legs (with levelers attached/frozen on)

Evapo-rust is awesome.

Safe for kids. Re-usable.

I'm on the buy new one bandwagon but those are some amazing results.

How do you guys get legs to look shiny? Mine don't have rust right now but look kind of dull.

Yup, use it over and over again. Just pour it through coffee filters to remove the old sediment and rust particles.

I tried brasso with steelwool, coke and alumium foil, but still rust, then the evapo-rust. boom, rust gone, great stuff!!!

And don't forget now that the warmer weather is here, Evapo-Rust works faster when the temperature is above 70 degrees.

PLEASE do not use steel wool or brillo for removing rust on chrome. The steel wire gets embedded into the chrome and will rust fairly quickly making your new shiny parts short lived.

Electrolysis, as mentioned earlier, is a great way to remove rust. I've been using this method for years in my garage for tools, motorcycle gas tanks and pretty much anything with rust. Check out a video I made with my wife doing this. We made it for her chemistry class. She was the only person to get an A for the project. I got a little "A" for helping her get the good grade.

That being said, I've started cleaning off the rust on mine. Followed by prepping for paint. Finally I paint them a custom color trying to capture the theme of the pin and then clear coat. Some people may think its not durable but I haven't had any problems. I enjoy having unique legs on my pins. The "wow" factor from my guests is pretty awesome too.

Evapo-rust.
Mother's mag polish.
Wax.

IMO

Tremclad is a pretty magical thing, and it comes in boatloads of colors, textures, finishes. A can of that stuff should do 4 legs no problem.

The "cheap ass" solution is Coca-Cola. It works in a pinch...
The "right" solution is Evapo-rust purchased at AutoZone. No shipping, and $3 cheaper there than anywhere else I could find.

We've seen the results with Evaporust, looks really good. Science is required, so I built a bucket with 3' of 4" PVC pipe, filled it with 7 liters of coke, and stuck a couple really rusty legs in there for 24 hours. I also scrubbed with crumpled up tin foil after removing from the soak.

Before: Very rusty. Leg levelers were not going to come off without dynamite.

Before

After: Not too shabby. Got a lot of rust off. Didn't really do much inside at the bottom where the levellers were, and it's an awkward spot so I couldn't really scrub either, but no one ever sees there.

20161011_212402[1] (resized).jpg

Side by side comparison with a leg still on the machine (front of machine is resting on stool).

20161011_212424[1] (resized).jpg

End result is that the bulk of the rust is gone, but the chrome was quite pitted and damaged. I'll probably now experiment with tremclad, spray paint them with something interesting.

Science complete. Evapo-rust for so much win.

I put the two rear legs in evaporust overnight. The rust just melted right off, as described before, all I had to do was rinse and wipe. Where no chrome was visible through the rust before, it is all chrome now. I'm not even sure how this is possible. I've dipped the coke-cleaned ones back in with the evaporust now.

Here's a pic of the back legs half way through. The rustiest bits look practically like new!

Eureka!