What do ye use to clean up exhaust pipework?

[Adderboy]

Electrolysis takes ALOT of the hard work out, for severely rusted pipe work, its a piece of piss to do and virtually free! Best thing I have ever discovered (i m not a fan of elbow grease, if there is a machine that can do a job for me I will find it!)

[Mat86]

Electrolysis takes ALOT of the hard work out, for severely rusted pipe work, its a piece of piss to do and virtually free! Best thing I have ever discovered (i m not a fan of elbow grease, if there is a machine that can do a job for me I will find it!)

Is this something you've done yourself? what electrolyte do you use?

[The Novice]

Electrolysis takes ALOT of the hard work out, for severely rusted pipe work, its a piece of piss to do and virtually free! Best thing I have ever discovered (i m not a fan of elbow grease, if there is a machine that can do a job for me I will find it!)

Give us a 'how to' then.....

[Adderboy]

Things you need -
Battery charger
Soda Crystals
A tub
Water
Steel/iron, bigger surface area is better

Get a tub, I use one of the blue recycling boxes from the council, fill it with water, drop in the system, or anything made of steel or iron that you want the rust removed from.
Attach the negative lead from the battery to the exhaust in the tub, and attach the positive lead to a piece of steel (this will be destroyed by the process so dont use anything nice) and place this in the tub with it, making sure that the steel doesnt touch the exhaust under water
throw in a couple of tablespoons of soda crystals (available from most supermarkets) its not an exact science, more water = more soda.
turn on the battery charger, and leave for a good few hours (mine took 2 days)
Once you take it out it wont initially look a great deal different, however the rust WILL lift off with a quarter of the effort, sometimes using just a rag to wipe it off, its best to do this as soon as it comes out the tub. Some parts will still need a wire brush, but it will save you lots of work

Hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions as I've only written this very quickly on a mates phone.

[Delboy]

Very informative...I bet there's gonna be a few blokes in their garage this weekend giving that a go....I know I will...

[Mat86]

Thanks Adder. Looking forward to given it a go.

Is this the stuff?

A quid at tesco

[The Novice]

Some water, electricity and steel, sounds like fun !!

[scotjell]

Please place a warning on here!! I think turn off charger before removing or sticking hands in the water??

[speedy231278]

Charger will be running 12V at under an Amp, won't it? That's not going to blow your arm off, although of course it would be completely sensible to turn it off first...

[NGneer]

Some water, electricity and steel, sounds like fun !!

Hmmm last time I came across that mix involved some of our American cousins who liked to ask questions of people that were on extended vacation in Cuba and wore orange pajamas