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August 12, 2010
This page will constantly be under construction, as will the Rod !!!
March 2003
I have made a new batch of mollasses to remove the rust on the A model cowl I picked up recently.
This time I only put 25kg of mollasses in the 200 litre tank and it seems to be working fine. It cost $22.
This method is a little slow, taking up to a week or so for a fairly rusted panel or 2-3 weeks for really bad rust.. About every 2 or 3 days, I remove the panels and scrubbed it with a stiff nylon brush and then put it back in the mollasses. It really works !!
Here, you can see before and after the hood side panels.
The result is clean, shining metal which must be well washed down, forced air dryed and then quickly primed to avoid surface rust forming. So, far, I have used the same Mollasses mix for over 12 months without any problem.
Fairly obviously, a 1930 steel body has its fair share of rust. To remove this, there are a number of ways, including chemical stripping and sandblasting. On a per panel basis, this is fairly expensive. I have been quoted around $60 to do a mudguard (fender) for instance. An old time method is to use Mollasses, which is mildly acidic and is a by product of sugar refining. I had heard of this method and decided to try it. It does remove aluminium, so take care.