Someone one chime in soon, they're in there soaking. :)

Salt? I try to keep salt away from steel.

Most guys soak parts overnight, 12 to 24 hours to knock the rust off. You don't need anything 'extra' in there. Just mild dish-wash detergent and warm water. Safe, easy, effective.

If you have to have the parts right away, use Coca Cola and balled up tin foil.

John

Soak in White Vinegar, cleans off most crud and parts buff up nicely.

I think that is what I am going to switch to. The softener thing worries me, most likely irrationally, but better safe than sorry. Thanks

We have a softener and I have not noticed anything wrong with soaking parts in our water. I have been meaning to try the vinigar trick. Currently I soak small parts in Krudd-Kutter, and it works very good.

Jeff C

I tried the white vinegar and didn't have much luck on rust. Best thing so far has been straight Dawn soak, rinse with water, dry, then a heavy blast of WD-40, then dry. I want to try Krud Kutter and some of the other rust removers. But I still don't know if those rust removers can damage nickle plating. No one seems to know? :)

Thanks Jeff and FFR428, I appreciate it.

I use PB Blaster on my old Ford; don't know if it is hard on chrome, but it is fantastic on old cars, much better than WD-40.

Has anyone tried CLR for a soak of the metal parts? It does a hell-of-a-job on rust stains on porcelain and ceramic... I have a jug but have not tried it.

In the past I used Mr. Clean (straight up) with excellent results, but on my D-20 I'm using Brasso (and finding the chrome is pitted pretty badly).:mad: