Killing rust on a radio chassis
 

Hi again. I want to kill and remove rust from a radio chassis. Is there a thread here that tells me what is best? Regards, Dick.

Re: Killing rust on a radio chassis
 

Hi Dick

Many thoughts on this are you going to strip it completely?

I have used Oxalic acid in the past with pretty good success but it can make a bit of a mess on plated chassis though.

Cheers

Mike T

Re: Killing rust on a radio chassis
 

Might be of interest:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=155139

Alan

Re: Killing rust on a radio chassis
 

It depends on the result you want.

By far the best method is to strip the chassis completely and take it to the electroplater for rust removal and passivated Zinc plating. They will electrochemicaly remove the rust, or if its severe, fine glass bead blasting may be required that they will do for you. There will be pits left in the surface, but the rust will be totally gone. Then mask around the holes earth points/tags etc with sticky dots and spray it with Holts clear lacquer, this preserves the Zinc. The better places that deal with small custom electroplating jobs are used by the motorcyle restorers & they have platers that do this work.

If its not a practical proposition for such extensive disassembly, you will have to accept that some rust remains, however, you can completely deactivate it with organic rust converter. This converts the rust into a Ferric Tannate, a harmless blue black compound which does not progress to larger quantities over time. The converter I use for this is Fertan. It won't look attractive, but at least if you put a fine silver spray over it (Holts again) you will not have any problem with the rust reappearing under the paint, which always happens if the remaining microscopic rust crystals are not deactivated with the Fertan.