Relic M35 rust removal, electrolysis or oxalic acid?

[James C]

ive enjoyed reading all the comments on this thread and it has been an insight on helmet restoration ,something i have never tried but as i have a few ground dug lids i might be tempted to try now, i think judging by the before and after waxing pictures it was well worth doing especially to reveal the decal can anybody point me in the right direction for the oxalic acid i am in uk ,i am also wondering if anybody has ever tryed just diluted car paint stripper or would this be to aggresive sorry for my daft questions and thanks james

[davejb]

I know a hell of a lot of people use Oxalic acid and swear by it for restoring , but before you decide, please read an thread posted by Steve T on the dangers of using this, Steve is a pharmacist and after I read it, it gave me the heeby jeebies as to all the terrible effects that could occur if precautions were lax

[Adrian Stevenson]

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/resto...c-acid-150228/

[davejb]

Thanks Ade, i forgot to post the link

[James C]

thanks for the tip dave and thanks for the link adrian ive had a look ,some great info there and i understand what you mean its a substance not to be played around with ,its certainly something i wouldnt want my 7 year old to find thanks again james

[davejb]

Im pleased that you made the right decision, especially with inquisitive 7yr olds around ::

[Mannlicher]

Good evening.

I've just finished my first cleaning with oxalic, a german gasmask container. Here are the before/after pictures.

I've took all the necessary precautions, as stated in the topic mentioned above. The ratio used was 100 gr to 8 liters of warm water, soaking was three times 15', each soak followed by rinsing with cold water and scrubbing with the green part of a kitchen sponge. After that, the item was soaked in a bucket of cold water to neutralize the remains of the acid and then dryed in a pre-heated oven. When it was nice and dry, i applied wd-40 allover, to prevent further rusting. In the "after" picture it looks wet because the wd is still fresh. It will dry in a couple of days.

I'm pretty satisfied with the result, but i think this method should be used only for items that could have paint left under the rust and the rust layer is be only superficial. For items that are ground dug and the rust is thick/lumpy an there is no more paint left, i recommend the use of electrolisys. For i've seen, the oxalic is too weak to dislodge thick rust and a longer soak/greater concentration only changes the paint colour.

My 2 eurocents.
M

[Glenn66]

A great result with the gas mask container, well done!

You are correct, oxalic works best with superficial rust.

[James C]

what a transformation on the gasmask canister ,well worth doing the treatment

[Mannlicher]

Thanks everyone for the kind words