A tip for tarnishing/corrosion

[swee'pea99]

Spent an hour or two with my new lovely this afternoon, among other things trying out a bizarre technique for dealing with tarnishing. A scrunched up ball of aluminium foil, dipped in Coca-Cola, brief rub, then just wipe off. Amazing - check out these before & afters:

 

[TheDoctor]

Good lord! That's an incredible difference for a 'brief rub'.
Just one question - how on Earth did you come up with that technique? It wouldn't occur to me to clean stuff with tinfoil and Coke, any more than I would see a sandy beach and try to make windowpanes.

 

[brodie]

Wow, that's a big difference!

I tried foil by itself once (after reading about it on a web page) but it didn't really work. I think the key is the coke, which contains phosphoric acid. Rust removers contain phosphoric acid.

 

[MajorMantra]

Wow! I'll have to try that. Thanks for the tip.

Matthew

 

[swee'pea99]

Good lord! That's an incredible difference for a 'brief rub'.
Just one question - how on Earth did you come up with that technique? It wouldn't occur to me to clean stuff with tinfoil and Coke, any more than I would see a sandy beach and try to make windowpanes.

It is quite gobsmacking, but I swear it's for real. I found it by googling - can't recall where. But one of the posters did stress that it's crucial to use 'The Real Thing' - cheapo cokes don't work. 50p. And it was no more than half an hour to do the forks, the chainset, the rear tube and the pedals.

 

[Garz]

Smashing results there SP99.

 

[RSV_Ecosse]

Coke-a-Cola, amazing stuff.

Known for years that a really easy way to free off seized/sticking pistons in a car or motorbike engine that has been sat still for years is to pour Coke down the bores and let it sit overnight. Then turn the engine over and lo and behold, it sprays Coke out everywhere but free's off the pistons in the bores.

The reason this works is that Coke contains phosphoric acid, you know, the same stuff that dissolves your tooth enamel. It's enough that it can slightly dissolve and penetrate the seized area where the friction has welded the piston rings to the bore. It also dissolves rust, and attacks oxidation- it's excellent for cleaning alloys and for scouring rusty gas tanks.

Apparently.

 

[Landslide]

But can it un-seize seatposts?

 

[RSV_Ecosse]

LOL.....can anything?.

 

[2Loose]

That is amazing and definitely one to remember.

 

[jimboalee]

Half an hour, my bum!

The 'before' photos are in broad daylight and the 'after' photos are in the middle of the night.