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I know this thread was about rust removal and ultra-sonic cleaners, but I have a tidbit of information about removing modern electro-plating.

The other day I was experimenting with stripping the electro plating off of modern nuts and bolts from the hardware store. My goal was to strip the plating off, and then use a Caswell black oxide product, with a penetrating oil sealer, to end-up with something that looked like a black phosphate finish. What I found was a Lysol 10X toilet bowl cleaner (hydrochloric acid) did a wonderful job of stripping the bright plating. Knowing that process had a chance of working, I started on the real job of ‘toning-down’ a set of sheet metal wing nuts for my ’48 battery hold down bolts. The modern wingnuts almost match the original design, but the bright plating on the new nuts was clearly too striking for the rest of the engine compartment, hence the desire to replicate a black phosphate finish. The Lysol product does a good job of striping the modern electro-plating. I guess the next question is whether Lysol toilet bowl cleaner will dispatch rust as well.

dp