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Need help cleaning stained on rust on aluminum diamond plate

plastikdreams

plastikdreams

Diamond
Joined
May 31, 2011
Location
upstate nj
A while back we had a leaking fitting on one of our engines, someone didn't tighten it enough, and it dripped rusty water into the aluminum diamond plate. The stain it left is on there good. I've tried multiple grades of scotchbrite along with purpose cleaners to no avail. My next thought is to have at it with a wire wheel on a 3.5 grinder and then repolish. Any other thoughts?

KIMG0346.jpg
 
Dont take a wire wheel to it ...youll ruin the surface and it will be permanently dirty ......First Id try some of the ally brightener containing hydroflouric acid (3%)......dont get it in your eyes ,tho .....it works wonders with stained extrusion.......If this doesnt work ,I d try some stainless steel stain remover with nitric and hydroflouric acids ....this is magic removing rusty mrks from stainless fabrications .........try it out on a sample first tho.
 
Maybe try naval jelly (oxalic acid) before the hideously strong ones mentioned above?

If you do use a wire brush try to get one with brass bristles or some kind of non-ferric bristles. Otherwise you will smear on more iron which will rust even worse.

That's my $.02 worth. Guaranteed to be worth what you paid for it.
 
Yeah I would try Bar Keeper's Friend first. It has surprised me more than a few times with cleaning up rust stains. The oxalic acid is the key - none of the other cleansers use it AFAIK.
 
Ok looks like I'll try the barkeeper's friend first. Thanks guys.

Ha flitz, is that stuff still around? I use blue magic metal polish for my shining needs.
 
metalmagpie said:
Maybe try naval jelly (oxalic acid) before the hideously strong ones mentioned above?

If you do use a wire brush try to get one with brass bristles or some kind of non-ferric bristles. Otherwise you will smear on more iron which will rust even worse.

That's my $.02 worth. Guaranteed to be worth what you paid for it.
Click to expand...

You mean "Aluminum jelly".. Oxalic acid.

"Naval" Jelly is Phosphoric. Meant for Iron & its alloys.

Mild etch, paint it. Go do something more useful.

Person could buy a new tread before yah could justify the labour of "restoral".
And to WHAT? It's a tread. Meant to be walked on.

Not a statue of Claudia Cardinale's lovely ass ... nor a first-surface mirror for a NASA orbital stargazer telescope.
 
thermite said:
You mean "Aluminum jelly".. Oxalic acid.

"Naval" Jelly is Phosphoric. Meant for Iron & its alloys.

Mild etch, paint it. Go do something more useful.

Person could buy a new tread before yah could justify the labour of "restoral".
And to WHAT? It's a tread. Meant to be walked on.

Not a statue of Claudia Cardinale's lovely ass ... nor a first-surface mirror for a NASA orbital stargazer telescope.
Click to expand...

It's on a fire truck lol we aren't anal about keeping the trucks mirror finished but we do like them to look decent. :)
 
We had diamond-tread aluminum deck plates in our manned 5”/38 gun mounts in the USN, and used a weak solution of citric acid to clean them. Worked great. We got the powdered red fruit juice mix from the mess cooks; everyone called it “bug juice.” So now I keep powdered citric acid in the shop for cleaning metals.
 
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