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How to clean wireforms and chrome - spacies tutorial.


spacies

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Lets 'fess up, freakin' wireforms gives us the $hits and cleaning them is something all of us hobbyists and restorers never look forward too. Lots of wire, lots of little rust spots, lots of dirty joints that are almost impossible to get into and clean properly, lots of leftover rag stuck in the joints and even once you have installed these damned things back in your machine, you are still cleaning off Autosol or Silvo for days afterwards.

 

That's about to change.

 

Here are the things you are going to need:

 

1 x large plastic bin. I use the large 'under bed' one available from Bunnings. I think it was $23.99. It fits 4 Bally/Williams legs. It won't fit Stern.

1 x bag of Oxalic Acid. This was also from Bunnings and was $17 (see below for pic). This is what you use as a Timber Bleach. Google it.

Rubber gloves. Heavy duty ones like dishwashing gloves.

1 x 3m 000 Grade Pad. This is a Non Scratch pad (see below for pic)

An old toothbrush. You'll need this because some real stubborn rust will go yellow and that stuff it usually in the joins.

Fish Oil Spray (or any other rust inhibitor).

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-18173909_zpsd212a1b4.jpg

 

Lots of rags.

Water.

 

Just a few safety points first. Wear long sleeves and pants to protect from the acid. Wear glasses to protect your eyes. Although this stuff isn't too dangerous because it is diluted a lot, I don't want you guys taking risks :)

 

Okay, now for the fun stuff!

 

Put on your rubber gloves and then put 1 heaped tablespoon of the Oxalic Acid in to the bin and fill with water. Give it a quick stir with a stick.

 

Gently put in the chrome parts you want to clean. Careful not to splash! Now put the lid on the tub and wait.

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-09125804_zps0346d7d0.jpg

 

That's it! No need to sit there for hours swearing and cursing scrubbing those wireforms. The minimum is about 6 hours but it is better to leave stuff overnight.

 

With the real stubborn rust, you'll need to hose them down and then repeat the soaking and maybe add another spoon of Acid. You'll see the real stubborn stuff because it will go yellow.

 

Righto, I purchased the world's dirtiest Demo Man:

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-02-20122014_zps7d12d23b.jpg

 

This sucker was just filthy. All that black stuff is the perished rubbers from the playfield which has been picked up by the balls and deposited everywhere! There were rubber bands on the outlanes that had perished and melted on to the playfield. Eek.

 

So the wireforms looked like this:

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-09125830_zps6d1ae638.jpg

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-09125907_zps82558ccd.jpg

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-10190213_zpsc70fda52.jpg

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-11170226_zps3c3a67c0.jpg

 

All of them were like this, dirty and with thousands of little rust spots. I have been down the rub 'n scrub route with these things and it ain't fun, but you already know that. My first encounter was TFTC which also has a lot of wire! I spent a whole day rubbing those damn things until I was over it. Arggh.

 

I let these soak overnight and removed them from the brew. I hosed them clean, wiped them down with an old towel and then used a clean rag to get rid of the oxidation. I grabbed the toothbrush to remove any stuff stuck in the joints. Once this was done I wiped them over with the 000 pad. This took all of 15-20 minutes to do ALL of these wireforms. I know I have spent 20 minutes doing one small wireform before!

 

Here are the results:

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-11170544_zpsd7929303.jpg

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-11170512_zps31b2f780.jpg

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-11170606_zpsfa0e6e7c.jpg

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/IMAG0426_zps51e85003.jpg

 

 

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-03-11170853_zps05425155.jpg

 

There you have it guys. This is the easiest way to clean these things or any other chrome part be it pinball, automotive or whatever, but especially wireforms!

 

Oh the Fish Oil! Give them a light spray and a wipe down. This will stop those pesky little rust spots ever coming back. It's an optional step so I'll leave it up to you. One place you will need to use the Fish Oil is on the inside of the legs. They just about always have rust on the back and especially down the bottom where the leg leveler goes through.

 

When you're done with the brew, pour it on the grass, not down the drain! You grass will go nuts!

 

Happy Aciding!

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Well finally gave this a go - put oxalic acid from bunnings (called rust and stain remover) with water in an old plastic tub and dropped some pretty nasty wireforms in there. After 10 hours, i opened the lid up, and must admit i was a bit underwhelmed - the worst ones still looked pretty rusty, left them in for another 8 hours.

 

This morning had a look, and the bad still looked bad - HOWEVER, gave them a very light scrub with a toothbrush and ALL of the rust spots fell away. Absolutely blown away by how quick and easy this method is.

 

Thanks heaps for the tips and @spacies - how did the legs you were trying come up? I've got some really bad ones, but will need a bigger tub.

 

See pics for some ramps that i couldn't fit in all at once and are only half treated

 

IMG_5836.thumb.jpg.ba4a18e2da2c4d4d0d308c510d9aa03e.jpg

 

IMG_5837.thumb.jpg.623d88242343541f072b9344c71d012d.jpg

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Well finally gave this a go - put oxalic acid from bunnings (called rust and stain remover) with water in an old plastic tub and dropped some pretty nasty wireforms in there. After 10 hours, i opened the lid up, and must admit i was a bit underwhelmed - the worst ones still looked pretty rusty, left them in for another 8 hours.

 

This morning had a look, and the bad still looked bad - HOWEVER, gave them a very light scrub with a toothbrush and ALL of the rust spots fell away. Absolutely blown away by how quick and easy this method is.

 

Thanks heaps for the tips and @spacies - how did the legs you were trying come up? I've got some really bad ones, but will need a bigger tub.

 

See pics for some ramps that i couldn't fit in all at once and are only half treated

 

 

Cheers! Patience is the key with letting them soak ;) I am sure you will never scrub another wireform again after giving this a go.

 

The legs I did came up pretty good. They were really rusty on the inside especially down at the base where the leveler comes through. All of the rust has gone but the rust ate the zinc plating so that area is a bit dull. But overall they look a heap better than what they did. The front of the legs are minty :)

 

:)

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Sorry to bump this but I am planning to do this with my World Cup Soccer wire form which has a gold finish. Will the acid attack the finish as well as the rust? Thanks!

 

Any feedback on this? Very interested in an answer.

 

Could this work as a "rejuvenation" treatment on my wife?:lol

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Any feedback on this? Very interested in an answer.

 

Could this work as a "rejuvenation" treatment on my wife?:lol

 

No I never did with my ramp, spacies told me he tried it will some gold ramps and it completely etched the gold off.

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Yeah it is really only for anything with rust on it. Gold wire forms don't rust.

 

The only reason I tried a gold one was because I had a real $hitty one to test with. It looked the same when I pulled it out until I touched it and the gold came off. It actually polished up pretty decent in the end as the gold must have coloured the original finish. It looked more 'white gold'

 

:)

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Sorry for resurrecting this, but do you think this would work on a lockdown bar receiver? If not any ideas how to clean one?

 

Any ideas on cleaning stainless steel parts? (Ramps etc)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Don't use this stuff on lock down bars etc - you won't like the results. I speak from recent experience.

Do you want to clean or regrain the SS? Big difference.

 

Probably just clean, but I'm guessing regrain makes it look like new again?

 

What about the lockdown receivers? What's the best way to clean those?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Probably just clean, but I'm guessing regrain makes it look like new again?

 

What about the lockdown receivers? What's the best way to clean those?

 

 

 

Regrain them with a scotch pad.

 

As for the receiver, get it zinc plated. It'll cost you like $5.

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Regrain them with a scotch pad.

 

As for the receiver, get it zinc plated. It'll cost you like $5.

 

Hey spacies, do you have any tips on what to use to get lockdown bars and side rails to a mirror finish?

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Yep, take them to a metal polisher they'll do it to any finish. Last set I got done was $70. The lockdown bar on this one had 5 rivets along the top. I drilled them out, TIG the holes and the polisher did his job. I didn't want these super mirror finish. He delivered, spot on.

 

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/spacies/2014-04-29%2016.13.00_zpsoojw3gaq.jpg

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Alex - don't mess about with side rails. Buy new ones from Jeff (JPD) Way cheaper than anything I have seen and a couple mm extra to cover shrunken decals.

Get the brightly annealed ones for your DM. I've 2 sets at the ready - can't wait to fit 'em up.

Get a few chrome leg bolts for the front while you are at it.

For the lock bar just work up from 400 to 3000 paper and only rub longways.

Metal polishing is one of the most enjoyable things in life.

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Think you missed the point of the thread here mate... Spacies is trying to save all that

farting about with polish and table top grinders.

 

 

Correct mate. I couldn't do as good of a job as a professional polisher can and for 70 squid it's not even worth me trying. Sure, you can replace them if they dents and $hit but if they are tidy, polish them.

 

A bench polisher would be no good for these items because they are too long. You'd ideally need a floor standing polisher and you could easily spend $300+ to get one and then add compounds.

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