Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Wren
best way to clean out all of the grime. Ultrasonic cleaner? Brake clean? PB Blaster? Let it soak in Dawn dishwashing liquid? going to take a little time.
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After initial scrub with a stiff nylon brush to get the loose crap, use boiling water. Boil the disassembled frame and all your small parts for 30-45min. in clean water. If your tap water has high mineral content, use distilled water (grocery store). 2 things will happen 1) all the old dried lubricants that have cemented with dust/powder residue, etc. will loosen from the metal and be easily brushed away. 2) any active rust on the metal will be converted to bluing. Might take a couple iterations of scrubbing and boiling to get it all, depending on how much rust there is and how deep it is. When it comes out of the boil, let dry and brush off the loose oxide with 0000 steel wool. If you still had colorful case hardening intact, I would be more cautious in my recommendation. But this does not seem to be the case. When you are done, it will still look its proper age, but look well cared for throughout its years rather than neglected. Take a look at my lewis project for what to expect from boiling. There was beautiful twist steel barrels hiding under what looked like an unrecoverable brick of red rust. I did no refinishing at all, just boiling. For the frame, I soaked in evaporust, which also removes any trace of finish, because I have a plan for refinishing it completely.