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Electrolysis is a rust removal process you can use on just about any sheet metal part. It will also remove paint. To use electrolysis you'll need a plastic container able to hold whatever item you want to clean. You'll also need to buy washing soda aka soda ash. Some people use baking soda but I can tell you from experiance that baking soda will leave a residue. Its just as easy to use washing soda and avoid the problem. Next you'll need a peice of sacrifice metal. This peice of metal will be destroyed. Next you'll need a battery charger and water. Note: Instead of soda ash you can use lye. If you do, use pure lye - not Draino. Again this will leave an undesired residue. Also lye will definitely remove all paint and lye is MUCH more dangerous to work with. Animals or humans who get into the solution will be harmed - esp if it gets in their eyes. Personally I NEVER use lye. Now put your part in the container and attach the BLACK (Negative) lead from the battery charger. Next put the sacrifice metal in and attach the RED(positive) lead. IF YOU GET THESE REVERSED YOU WILL DESTROY THE GOOD PART. Do not let the sacrifice metal touch the good part. Put in about 1 tbls of soda ash per gallon of water.(this ratio is not critical) I put the soda ash in first and spray the water on helping it dissolve. Once the water is in turn the power on the charger. 2 amps is plenty. NOTE: Make sure you grind down to bare metal on the sacrifice metal and good part to ensure good contact with the metal - rust is NOT a good conductor. Now just wait. You can leave this setup on for weeks if you desire. Sometimes if the rust is really bad I'll remove the part after a few days and wire brush all the loose rust off then continue with the electroylsis. After a few treatments your sacrifice metal will be useless and you'll need to replace. I've found using 1 - 2 foot sections of cut up metal fense posts works very well. Good luck.
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