Thread: Has anyone used Rust Dissolver???

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Originally Posted by Gusaroo

I have beeen reseraching this cause if Phosphoric acid is the active ingredient, some of these companies are blatantly ripping us off. 1 qt for $55 is ridiculous (por-15 for example). Not sure where to buy straight up Phosforic acid, but Zep and Behr have some rust removing products whose MSDS sheets show them to be almost 50% phosphoric acid, and a gallon of the stuff is less than $10...

damnnnnnnnnn i must be lucky cause i had a friend gave me a 5 gallon jug of it.

i believe u can get phosphoric acid at pool supply houses....joe

....you mean THAT'S what I dump in my pool??? he,he,he./......

Okay, bringing up the pool thing has caused me to find my "be cautious" hat. Not going to do too much of the Bill Nye the Science guy thing here but folks should be aware of dangers involved since we're just throwing this out to the world at random.

Acids are nothing to play around with, they can hurt you. And nowhere in this discussion have we talked much about concentrations. One indicator of the activity, and intensity of an acid is pH. Water, being neutral, has a pH of 7, alkalines, e.g. soaps, are numbers higher than 7 up to 14, the bigger the number the more harm they will do to you. Acids go the other way, the smaller the number, the more intense they are. Milk for example is around 6.5 pH. very mild acidic. Vinegar was mentioned, which falls somewhere in the 2.5-3 range depending on concentration. Phosphoric acid is around 2-2.5. The pool thing has me worried because my past experience with that is that acid for pools had been muratic (or muriatic) acid, which is a diluted form of hydrochloric acid. These often fall in the 0-.5 range. For instance a 10% solution of muriatic acid (meaning 90% something else, probably water) will eat a hole in your shorts in a hot hurry. A 30% solution, say, of phosphoric acid might cause some irritation, but likely won't eat through your skivies.

Rod & Custom did an article a while back about muratic acid being a cheap and readily available product to use in rust removal/control, but it was loaded with cautionary statements, and recommended a high level of dilution. Of course eye and skin protection, with any of these products, is an absolute must!!!

One of the arguments for buying preprepared commercial products is a safety margin is already built in.

Acids are nothing to play around with, they can hurt you.

Even the off the shelf 'diluted' stuff is fairly corrosive.
If it get on your hands - it starts burning pretty fast.

Water rinse takes care of it though.

I have a question. I have headers on my ACVW trike that are polished aluminum coated over steel inside and out. I'm glad I bought the top of the line brand!
They are now 2 yrs old , and I keep it covered all the time. They are full of rust freckles, Will soaking them in Vinegar remove the rust spots, and not harm the finish?
They come completely a part and will lay flat, so I can bag them with something. But what?

Thanks Pat

Muriatic acid is not good as a rust remover. It causes "Hydrogen Embrittlement" Just like it says, it puts hydrogen in the metal and therefore makes it brittle. 7018 welding rod, sometimes called Lo Hy rod, low hydrogen, is used to stop the weldment from being brittle.