Well, I dont have any experience with nickle finish so Im not much help. But might try a simple Dawn soaking, what the heck, cant hurt could it. My Rogers lugs had inserts that were stuck, I used CLR to remove the lime and crud and it worked good. But those were chrome. I would think the nickle would be OK in the CLR but if you do try it I would check on them every few minutes. But maybe, dawn first?? dunno.

Glenn - do both! Spray everything down with WD-40 let it all sit for a day, then have at the parts with a Dawn bath to get rid of the WD-40 and any corrosion that was left behind. Or... you can send them all to me and I'll put them through the walnut shells/Vibrator for you!

John

Thanks guys~!

Jeff yes I remembered you used the CLR but wasn't sure how it would affect the nickle plating either.

I sprayed 6 down with WD last night and it did free up the lead inserts enough to carefully remove them. I soaked everything in Dawn this morning and did my usual clean with dawn, bar keeps friend and old soft toothbrush. Cleaned the t rod inserts, springs, washers and screws. Then polished everything. 6 done and 12 to go. :)

John thanks for the tumbler offer too! Very nice of you buddy!

Ya John, nice of you to offer the tumbler. But now I cant get that stupid Boy Greorge song off my mind,,Ill timble for ya,,Ill tumble for ya

Better go crank up some Led Zepplin and erase that!

Yikes..... ya lots of Zepplin~! BG and Culture Club I could never listen too.

baby crawl2 <<< tumble 4 ya. Laughing H

I would not waste any time with WD-40. It was developed to clean alum. Does a poor job of that and is the best dust/dirt attractor I know of. Will quickly gum up precise machined screw threads.

PB Blaster is my go to to get stuck parts loose. Once loose Acetone to clean. Into a CLR soak. Next a tumble, Hand polish and the hardware should look almost new. If not repeat soak, tumble, polish it will look like new after three cycles.

CLR will chew nickle plate/pot metal up. Use clear glass jars to watch progress. When the bubbles stop. Pull the parts and give them a REALLY good rinse.

After all that I'm Liking Meg. All Metal polish to finish. Hope of some help.

Creighton

Although WD40 is also designed for (W)ater (D)isplacement, I have seen an instance where rust formed on steel beneath a coating of this so called miracle substance.

Creighton thanks! Good to know about the CLR. I agree on the WD not the best PB is much better. I think I need to invest in a small tumbler. I don't think this addiction is going away anytime soon so it'll get some good use here. Thanks everyone for the help~!

Guys - an alternative to the CLR is citric acid. It's sold in health food stores and is sometimes referred to as "sour salt". Around here it sells for $.65/oz.

It's a white powdery substance. You mix 1 cup to 1 gal of warm water.

Drop the parts in and let them sit. They'll start to bubble and after 10-15 mins you'll see the rust laying on the bottom of the container.

Works great on tension rods, lug bolts, lugs. Takes off the white-ish oxidation too.

Afterwards you can pour it down the sink.

Once you see what it can do to rusty parts, think about the fact that it's one of the main ingredients in Coke and other soft drinks.

Here's an example of how it works on some tools.