ktb919

Dunno if anyone else has had this come up lately, but thought I'd share it. So since spring is close enough to existing in the midwest, I decided to do some clean up in my '00 Firebird Formula's engine bay. To my dismay, under the battery tray lurked a patch of surface rust!


Much sadness
Well no way was I going to let that continue. Easiest way to clear the majority of that rust off was with a die grinder (80grit). Worked pretty well but the rust had caused a lot of pitting that the die grinder couldn't get at. So began the research. Some people talked about using straight up phosporic acid which just sounded terrifying. Some even said that white vinegar works which also didn't sound right....vinegar is used to clean windows, pretty sure it can't handle rust. Or at least a reasonable amount can't. Some guys on here mentioned Evoporust, but I didn't want to have a massive jug when I only needed a little bit. Then my wonderful fiance in all his infinite wisdom asked "have you tried naval jelly?" I personally had never considered it, I always thought of naval jelly as something for cleaning up that socket that got left out in the rain. Gave it a spin, and three coats later it looked like this:


Much easier to see all the pitting here
Thought it came out really well and without spending a lot (was $7 at Home Depot) or putting in a load of effort. Maybe that was obvious, but it wasn't to me. Hopefully this helps anyone else looking for a cheap, easy solution to reparing small areas of rust damage!