this may have already been adressed in another thread so forgive me if i'm repeating the same info but i learned a really cool trick to shine up chrome hoops and my supraphonic snare. take some tin foil (aluminum foil) and ball it up, wet it and scrub the rusted or pitted areas. worked like a charm and some of these hoops were pretty bad.
just thought i would pass it along
Yes I have heard that, but I thought you soaked the foil in Coke or something. Never tried this, it would be cool to see some before and after pics.
the acid in the coke may give it more "bite" so that may work better (i've cleaned concrete with coke) worked good for me with just water though..
Dang! I'd forgotten about that..oh well, next kit.
I recently did a major restoration on an entire set that included a variety of corroded and pitted parts, both chrome and nickel. I tried the coke + tin foil method on a few parts, and it did a fair job. But what really worked a LOT better was letting the parts sit in cider vinegar for a few hours. That made everything look pretty much like new, was a lot less messy, required no elbow grease, and was cheaper and simpler. If you use the cider vinegar method, it is advisable to follow it with a bath in baking soda to nullify any residual acidity.
good to know. i still have a lot of hardware and small parts to clean for my newest kit, i think i'll try this method for those and compare outcomes. thanks for the tip!
the vinager soak worked really great! thanks for that tip hardbat
That's great! What really sold me was what it did for my old Gretsch mufflers. Those things get to looking so corroded I wondered if there was any metal left under all that rust. The vinegar shined them up so amazingly, I didn't even know that little cylinder piece was actually brass. Made them look shiny new. Also the screws holding in the lug casings - the drum interior looks so much more classier with shiny new-looking screws. Just dropped them in a jar of vinegar for a couple of hours, then transfered them to a jar of baking soda and water. Tried the same with coke and it didn't do much of anything.
yeah there were a few pieces that i said "this will never come clean" but after a two hour soak the rust just wiped right off. makes me want to find another old rusty set and restore it. i'm also gonna soak some chrome parts off of my 79 ford and see how that works. thanks again.
I tried the foil and water trick last night, it worked great!
