Removal of calcium chloride rust flaked surface of rim

Tgrasher · Apr 16, 2021

Anyone have an easier way to clean a rim with flaky rust? The air chisel is better than pecking with a hammer but still a lot of work and time. I've been doing a couple of feet at a time and then letting air compressor and me cool off awhile. Plan on wire brushing with 4 1/2 grinder and then coating with Rustoleum Rust Dissolver before red oxide primer. Still another rim to do after this one, ole arthritis going to visit me a bunch.

JD Dave · Apr 16, 2021

It doesn't look too bad. I would save a bunch of time and warm up my sandblaster. Blast the rims inside and out and get a good, heavy coat of self-etching primer on them right away. You'll be pleased as punch as that nasty, caustic primer will make a topcoat stick like glue. Suggest that if the primer is a few days drying that you scuff it with Scotch-Brite before top-coating. Best advice is to follow the paint manufacturer's instructions.

showcrop · Apr 16, 2021

I doubt that you will find anything faster or easier than the air chisel, unless it were a high pressure, high volume diesel powered industrial sandblaster. The sand would have to eat through that armor plate rust instead of getting it off in chunks like your air chisel does. I agree with using self etching primer and staying with-in the topcoat window. I have used it on a few projects. I wouldn't call it nasty though.

SVcummins · Apr 17, 2021

Cold chisel wire wheel flap disk regular Grinder disk clean clean and clean some more when you think your do it about 3 more times . Tire man told me muratic acid will kill it I am going to try it

DR. EVIL · Apr 17, 2021

SHOWCROP AND JD Dave have it right. Sand blasting is WAY faster that what your are doing. Angle grinder wan't save much time either. I did two 11x38 rear rims 8-9 years ago. Used my 40# Harbor Freight pressure pot sand blaster. That was the whole reason I bought a 7-1/2 hp 80 gallon 2-stage air compressor about 12 years ago. With a brand new ceramic nozzle in the blast gun my compressor would catch up and shut off, but after the first 40# of crushed and sized granite sand through a nozzle the compressor ran continuously. Took about 40-45 minutes to do a rim inside and outside and two 40# pots of sand. A 50# bag of sand was $10.
Hire someone to blast them for you if you don't have a big enough compressor. Most sand blasting contractors also paint!

showcrop · Apr 17, 2021

(quoted from post at 02:46:42 04/17/21) SHOWCROP AND JD Dave have it right. Sand blasting is WAY faster that what your are doing. Angle grinder wan't save much time either. I did two 11x38 rear rims 8-9 years ago. Used my 40# Harbor Freight pressure pot sand blaster. That was the whole reason I bought a 7-1/2 hp 80 gallon 2-stage air compressor about 12 years ago. With a brand new ceramic nozzle in the blast gun my compressor would catch up and shut off, but after the first 40# of crushed and sized granite sand through a nozzle the compressor ran continuously. Took about 40-45 minutes to do a rim inside and outside and two 40# pots of sand. A 50# bag of sand was $10.
Hire someone to blast them for you if you don't have a big enough compressor. Most sand blasting contractors also paint!

Dr. Evil, perhaps I didn't word my post well. I believe that the chisel is faster. This is why: If you look carefully at Tgrasher's photos you can see that he is removing chunks of armor plate type rust. It is not as thick as some that I have encountered, yet it appears to be 1/8 inch thick in places and probably comes off in one inch diam. chunks. Now this is a border line situation, but the my point is that one needs to look closely at rust before proceeding, or a lot of time can be spent wearing through or worse yet polishing and then painting over thick armor plate rust when it can be popped off with a hammer or chisel.

560Dennis · Apr 17, 2021

Electrolysis plastic Swimming pool of soda wash battery charger , be some beatification designs on surface of pool , coat with wd40 after rinse surface will turn black oxide should take two or three days .

showcrop · Apr 17, 2021

(quoted from post at 05:07:16 04/17/21) Electrolysis plastic Swimming pool of soda wash battery charger , be some beatification designs on surface of pool , coat with wd40 after rinse surface will turn black oxide should take two or three days .

560 Dennis, your post is hard to read but electrolysis will do little for the 1/8 inch thick "armor plate" rust. Sure it will loosen some but to work its way under 98% will no doubt take weeks.

560Dennis · Apr 17, 2021

Ear plugs and engineer heavy hammer rapping on the rust crust .

Tgrasher · Apr 17, 2021

A man uses what he has at hand so I went ahead with the air chisel with ear and eye protection. I then went over the rim with a cone brush on a 4 1/2 grinder, which cleaned most of the rust from the pits. The picture shows the rim with two coats of Rust Dissolver which can be primered over. The square hole at the bottom is where the valve stem had been with a hammered washer and rubber boot to hold it in place, one of those quick fixes that passes the problem down to the next guy who owns the tractor. It did last long enough. The other tire/rim on the tractor appears to be the same. This at least I don't mind welding, sort of a challenge.

560Dennis · Apr 17, 2021

Success ! That looks great

SVcummins · Apr 18, 2021

You have a lot of big flakes to clean off yet

SVcummins · Apr 18, 2021

Lots of big chunks on that rim yet . I have seen it be an inch
thick and you knock it off a section at a time with a cold chisel
. Not even sure how it can get that thick

showcrop · Apr 18, 2021

It looks to me like you have done a REAL rust removing job on it. With the time that you have spent on it going over it slowly and carefully with that chisel, I doubt that you have missed any armor plate pieces, and the rust converter gets down into the pits where the grinder won't. It took a lot of time but you can be confident now. So many jobs like this end up being just eye wash. The rust gets covered over so that it is protected from drying out so that it has an enhanced growth environment.

Mike(NEOhio) · Apr 18, 2021

I read where iron oxide can expand to 17 times its iron volume.

SVcummins · Apr 18, 2021

I believe that the calcium must act like fertilizer

fred kobs · Apr 19, 2021

Would have been an excellent place to try out a needle scaler if you have never used 1. I just bought one and it would have made short work out of that.

SVcummins · Apr 19, 2021

I really want a needle scaler for this

560Dennis · Apr 21, 2021

I agree , but I have to wait to comment on that till I get one and a bigger compressor. Always something to hold up a good experiment.next time !

Bogbilly · Jul 21, 2021

I have never done a wheel but I use a needle gun a lot on rusted steel to prep for welding. How do you think that would work on this rust? I have taken off up to an inch of flakey rust on steel beams that we repurposed for other projects. What do you think?

Removal of calcium chloride rust flaked surface of rim

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