Phosphoric acid for rust on chrome parts

You ever use this stuff Marty? I bought it ages ago but I've never tried it.

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About using domestic cleaning products on your bike,
Kleenoff and other oven-cleaning products work great for taking burnt-on lubricants & melted-on synthetic boot soles off exhaust systems
but those products are highly alkaline. They'll also do a great job of dissolving aluminum engine cases.
 
You ever use this stuff Marty? I bought it ages ago but I've never tried it.

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I use this one. Same stuff. I get it at Home Depot. I love it! It won't etch a fuel tank that has a couple of rust spots you want gone. It won't hurt paint, chrome, or bare metal.
 
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About using domestic cleaning products on your bike,
Kleenoff and other oven-cleaning products work great for taking burnt-on lubricants & melted-on synthetic boot soles off exhaust systems
but those products are highly alkaline. They'll also do a great job of dissolving aluminum engine cases.
MEK is my choice for stuff melted onto hot stuff. It wipes it right off and won't eat aluminum.
 
Is that a desktop pc in your garage? I've often wondered how some of you guys get stuff done and are on here often. Lol
Yeah. Learned years ago how useful it is having a computer out here. Had to replace the motor drives on the rear windows of my wife's Grand Prix. Watched a Youtube video of it and figured I'd pause it, go out in the garage, do that step, back to play, pause, back out in the garage..... rinse and repeat. Then I remembered I had an old PC boxed up down in the basement. Set it up in the garage and it's been useful ever since. Manuals, parts catalogues.... looking at the right part to order. Don't know what I'd do without it out here now.
 
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Wow! Chrome is completely unaffected as far as I can tell. This is the result after over 24 hours in my weak phosphoric acid solution. This was 2 cups Etch & Prep in 5 gallons of water. What you see here is how it looked after removing from the bucket and rinse with the hose. No mechanical action has been applied. As @Tomterrific said, it has an iron phosphate surface. I'll post again after elbow grease has been applied. I think it's going to be a 10 footer.

Here's the before pic again.
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I often paint really rusty crap with 20 to 30% solution of phosphoric, leave 24 hours to convert the rust to iron phosphate then wash off. Leave another 24 hours to dry, then prime and paint.
Last lot of outdoor brackets I did, i missed out the washing part, just painted straight over the phosphated steel. Been a few years and those parts are still excellent.
 
Evapo-Rust works well.
For anything delicate, Evapo-Rust, Metal Rescue or one of the other chelating agents is the best choice. The down side is it would take five or six gallons of it the way I'm doing that fender. If phosphoric acid doesn't affect the chrome, this is a lot cheaper, a whole lot cheaper.
 
For anything delicate, Evapo-Rust, Metal Rescue or one of the other chelating agents is the best choice. The down side is it would take five or six gallons of it the way I'm doing that fender. If phosphoric acid doesn't affect the chrome, this is a lot cheaper, a whole lot cheaper.
When I resurrected my XS2 Evapo-Rust is what I used. When doing rims and fenders I did them a section at a time. The only chrome it discolored was the fork tubes.
 
I went after the chrome blisters with wire brush and put the fender back in the acid solution. I'll pull it in the morning.
 
What do you mean hear. Wouldn't a wire brush scratch the chrome badly?
The brass bristle brush does not. The stainless steel brush does scratch. In this case it doesn't matter. The worst parts will be under the seat. If I leave the blisters, I expect rust to grow under them. I'm not sure if I'll use this fender. Maybe I'll investigate powder on it.
Most of my motivation here is about what a phosphoric acid solution will do to chrome. We all know Metal Rescue/Evapo-Rust are the good stuff and in many or most cases, that's where I'm going. For badly rusted parts, I use phosphoric acid anyway. I never tried it on chrome before now.

Perhaps I should alter my title.
 
The 650 fender did 16 more hours in the acid solution. The formerly rusty metal all has a black iron phosphate coating on it. From over 10 feet away, the important part of the fender looks good or nice and shiny. There appears to be no harm to the chrome.
I'll polish it when I have more time and post a photo.
 
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