As old man Winter has finally released his icy grip on the Mid Atlantic region of the country where I now live, I began to once again dream of the day when I could enjoy my ’64 MGB on long country drives with the top down. The only problem is that I have many restoration projects ahead of me before that dream can become reality. Among them is attacking rust, which is all too common on British cars of this era and in this part of the country. I’ve got lots of it with this car! We’ll address panel replacement in a future article. The best advice I can give anyone doing it him or herself is to break the big, and sometimes overwhelming project, down into small, manageable tasks. That way you’ll see steady progress and won’t be as likely to lose interest. With that in mind, I decided to tackle cleaning up some small parts and electroplate some of them for corrosion protection as well as a highly detailed appearance. My goal is to use as many of the original parts, including fasteners, as possible to preserve originality. That means I’ve got a LOT of rusty, and just plain cruddy nuts, bolts, and screws, along with latches, brackets, and the like. Personally, I like to see little details in a restored car that indicate a high level of workmanship and care went into the finished product. Once de-rusted, some fasteners will be painted again as they came from the factory, but others will be appropriately plated and shined.

Tumble the rust away

John Sloane at the Eastwood Company keeps me in the loop on their new tools and supplies for automotive hobbyists and restorers, so he suggested I try two of their innovative products to achieve my desired results. To remove rust, I’ve always used media blasting, sanding, wire brushing, or Eastwood’s rust dissolver. They all work well, but John suggested I try their vibrating tumbler to clean things up. It works by vibrating the parts in a bowl containing a rust-cutting media that removes rust and scale over time. To borrow a phrase from the master TV pitchman Ron Popeil, it’s truly “set it and forget it!” The tumbler is reported to be six times faster than rotary tumbling and produces a great result with ease. The tumblers come in three sizes – jumbo (for parts up to 10 “ long), medium (for parts up to 6” long), and small (for parts up to 3” long). Since I’m dealing with small fasteners and brackets, I chose the small one. It arrived complete with a bag each of green rust-cutting media and shining media. It’s suggested to degrease your parts with metal-wash before tumbling them, but I already had some on hand.

What’s old is (better than) new again!

Rust-busting by tumbling and electroplating small parts

by Jeff Shade

These hood and trunk latches from the author’s 64 MGB have 44 years worth of rust, heavy grime, and paint to remove. We’ll also throw some rusted fender bolts into the mix.

Place your parts in the tumbler and add the green rust-cutting media. Add some water to just moisten the mix. You should have about 30% parts to 70% media for the best results.

It’s advised to remove paint before placing them in the tumbler to remove the rust. Aircraft paint stripper works very well for this.

The vibratory tumbler and electroplating kits from The Eastwood Company have everything you’ll need to de-rust, polish, and plate small parts.

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