A new experiment - Removing Rust And Oxidization Using Vinegar - Does It Work

After the seemingly successful experiment using brake fluid to restore old hard rubber parts on the old Kawasaki I am really getting into this experimenting thing.

I have seen another seemingly strange restoration technique on the web and that is using plain household vinegar to remove rust and corrosion from metal surfaces.

Supposedly this removes rust from steel parts as well as oxidization from aluminium and other alloys.

I have decided to test this on my corroded fuel filler cap as this has several different metals such as steel, aluminium, brass, and what looks like a type of zinc alloy as well, it also has a painted surface for extra interest.

So for my very technical and scientific test I am simply going to drop it whole into some vinegar and see what happens so check back in the next few days to see the results.

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Restoring rubber with brake fluid - Link to videos

Just thought I would post my youtube videos of my experiment with brake fluid and rubber

I originally posted on my blog on 10 August 2013 how I did this but these are the videos I have posted on youtube since then.

Part one shows how I set up the test

And part two shows the results

Hope you find this test useful and don't forget to subscribe to my blog and Youtube chanel as I will be posting lots more tests and how to videos soon

Why you should drain the fuel from your motorcycle gas tank

BE WARNED

Why you should drain the fuel from your gas tank

Many people will tell you that if you are going to store your bike for any length of time you must drain the fuel from the tank and carbs as it will go off.

What does go off mean and is it as serious as people say it is ?

It is as bad as people say it is !!!

As you know I am stripping my old Kawasaki Zephyr ZR750 with the intention of rebuilding it by saving as many parts as I can from the old bike using various weird and wonderful ideas I have seen on the net.

The idea is to spend as little as possible and use some unusual ideas to save and restore the original parts where possible.

One part I want to save is the fuel tank, once in very good condition and now very rusty inside.

Now the reason it is in such bad condition is because I did not drain the fuel from the tank and now that fuel has essentially turned to muddy water and has caused the inside of the tank to rust

The rust could have been prevented if the tank had been drained before storing and saved me a lot of work now.

Here is a video showing what I found when I did drain the tank !!

As you can see it is now basically muddy water with bits of rust in it

So ALWAYS drain your tank and carbs if storing a bike for more than a couple of months

Doing My Research - Finding Free Alternative Restoration Techniques

Researching free restoration tips

The theme of this blog is to do as much restoration and tuning as I can to the old Kawasaki Zephyr ZR750 as possible whilst spending as little money as I can get away with.

Obviously most of these ideas will transfer to most Japanese multis from Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda or Kawasaki, in fact virtually any motorcycle you can think of.

When restoring or tuning motorcycles in the past I would aim for perfection as much as possible, not so I could show the bikes ( I have never put my bikes in a show ) but for my own satisfaction and the knowledge that I have done things the best way I could possibly do.

That approach is ok if you are willing to buy new parts when needed or have a large workshop with all the tools and equipment and skill needed to do major engineering work such as skimming the head but that is not the plan, the plan is to do this restoration as cheaply as possible using tools and equipment that nearly everyone has at home.

This bike is also a challenge to myself to try some of the more "unusual" ideas to be found on the net. Some of these ideas are things that were in common use many years ago such as lapping and reaming components instead of CNC machining.

Some will be back yard ideas that I have never tried and would like to see what, if anything does work and what doesn't.

I will not be blindly just picking an idea and just doing it, I will check out all the different suggestions and using my own judgement I will choose a method I believe it will work and try it out for real.

So at the moment I am spending a bit of time checking out ideas and deciding which ones to try so click the FOLLOW MY BLOG button to be notified of my new posts and videos as they are posted.

The Results Of My Test Using Brake Fluid To Restore Rubber Vehicle Parts

A Test Using Brake Fluid To Restore Old Rubber Parts

Having never tried this before I thought it would be interesting to see whether it does actually work so I decided to test it myself.
Ok the test is over and this is what I found

The Method

I took two rubber gromets from the fuel tank on my Kawasaki that had aged and gone hard and brittle.
They were very hard, almost like a hard plastic and if you tried to bend them they would just start to crack and break up.

As you can see one side ( the right ) looked perfectly normal but had gone very hard almost like a hard plastic and was virtually unbendable.
The other side ( the left ) had completely deteriorated and had not only gone hard but if you touched it it would just crumble into small pieces.



I simply dropped them into a foil tray and covered them in some old dot4 brake fluid I had lying around and left them to soak for 24 hours.

I simply dropped them into a metal foil tray

And covered them in some old dot4 brake fluid and left them for 24 hours

The Results

After 24 hours I removed them from the brake fluid and this was the result

When I removed them from the brake fluid I could not see any change, they looked just the same as when I had put them in with no swelling or distortion and totally intact, I had wondered if they might dissolve or melt but they looked just the same as when I had put them in the fluid the day before,

No visual change to the side that looked normal

The bad side also looked just the same as before although there was evidence of some slight dissolving of the rubber with a slight black slimy coating to the surface.
There was also some loose bits that came away when you rubbed the surface, these were the remnants of the crumbling that was evident before treatment but it appeared to have stopped any further bits crumbling off

.
The rubber was now completely flexible and in my opinion was now just as flexible as a new item would be.
The good side was literally as good as new and indistinguishable from a new item.
The bad side looked just as before but was now completely flexible and no longer cracked or crumbled when touched and seemed to now be completely restored.

The Conclusion

IT WORKS !

Much to my surprise this does seem to work. Having left them outside in the sun and rain for a couple of weeks they still seem supple and flexible and I would not hesitate to put these back on the bike.

It was simple, cheap and easy to do and seems to work very well but be careful as brake fluid is quite a nasty chemical so always follow all health and safety regulations.

IMPORTANT
ALTHOUGH MY TEST SEEMS TO HAVE WORKED VERY WELL THIS IS JUST MY LITTLE HOME TEST AND NOT A SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND SAFETY AT ALL TIMES NOT ME SO BE CAREFUL AND SENSIBLE AND DO NOT USE ON ANY SAFETY RELATED ITEMS AND IF YOUR ITEM DISSOLVES OR FALLS TO BITS DON'T BLAME ME I CAN ONLY SHOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PARTICULAR ITEMS I TESTED.

Fuel Gone Bad - Why You Should Drain The Fuel From Your Gas Tank

Why you should drain the fuel from your gas tank

Many people will tell you that if you are going to store your bike for any length of time you must drain the fuel from the tank and carbs as it will go off.

What does go off mean and is it as serious as people say it is ?

It is as bad as people say it is !!!

As you know I am stripping my old Kawasaki Zephyr ZR750 with the intention of rebuilding it by saving as many parts as I can from the old bike using various weird and wonderful ideas I have seen on the net.

The idea is to spend as little as possible and use some unusual ideas to save and restore the original parts where possible.

One part I want to save is the fuel tank, once in very good condition and now very rusty inside.

The rust could have been prevented if the tank had been drained before storing and saved me a lot of work now but you live and learn so check out my video above to see what came out of the tank !

Removing the fuel tap / petcock, Fuel sender and Fuel cap from the tank ready for the respray

Dismanteling the tank components

A nice easy job this one so click on the link below to check out the full step by step guide

Link to fuel sender, fuel tap and fuel filler removal page

Or you can check out my youtube video here