Chemical cleaner

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I have been using a weak solution of alloy wheel cleaner lately Ian but I am willing to try anything that others may think will work better. I need about 2 gallons to fill the U/S cleaner properly - what dilution do you recommend?

[Ian Williams]

The packaging tells you 100g per litre, I use a lot less than that probably in the region of 50 to 75g/L. I recently did a pair of chrome headlights that were covered in that hard white crusty oxide layer that builds up on old chrome, you would have thought they were candidates for a re-chrome. Well after being immersed in the solution the oxide layer literally wiped off, they are mint now and have just the faintest patina!

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Thank you Ian,

[Ian Williams]

I am not saying it is any better than what you are using R, just that it has worked well for me

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I understand - still experimenting with potions for the U/S bath - happy to try this. Will let you know the outcome.

[Ian Williams]

Another fave potion of mine is marine clean, fantastic stuff, might be good in your U/S bath.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I have tried it but was disappointed when used in the U/S Cleaner - works very well with a stiff brush in weak warm solution.

[JonE]

a bump for carb cleaning for those without ultrasonics! I'm more worried about internals so may try the meths. But does acid actually hurt mazac and brass, or just the oxidised surfaces we want to remove?

[Hedd_Jones]

am I the only one concerned that the carbs on my cars are all dirtier than the one considered to need cleaning in this thread!

[Stuart Giles]

a bump for carb cleaning for those without ultrasonics! I'm more worried about internals so may try the meths. But does acid actually hurt mazac and brass, or just the oxidised surfaces we want to remove?

Oxalic acid (AKA wood bleach) is relatively benign, I've never used it on ali/mazac but with steel, cast iron etc, where it only removes the oxide, doesn't attack the metal at all. I have used this on seriously rusted precision machine tool parts without any issues. Here's a before and after on a sump I soaked in Oxalic acid solution a few years ago.



Of course, there's very little danger of an A7 sump ever suffering any rust