Hey Guys,

Don't know if this is the right forum, but I'm searching on how to properly clean a tarnished Tuff One chassis. :confused:
Has anyone used the old coin trick soaking in ketchup ( acidic)?

thanks

Mike

When I'm cleaning chassis, I ussually soak them in Simple Green for a few hours, then rinse with warm water. Always works for me and gets at tarnished copper and silver really well in places you cannot reach any other way.

It's not the ketchup as such, but the vinegar & salt content. It cleans very well, removing any corrosion or oxidation, but leaves a flat dull appearance. Is there any way to restore the shine or brilliance? A dremel chucked buffing wheel may work? Brasso ?
Thoughts??

thanks

ketchup can remove the plating,Ive done it,it does work well for really crudy copper chassis.Ive had good luck with paste type rim polish and a soft toothbrush.

Believe it or not, that silly crap you see on the infomercials called Tarn-X (Sp?) works great (available at Walgreens, sorry couldn't resist :lol:) to shine the silver or copper portions, but keep it off the carbon brushes and/or chrome plating.



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Agreed! Nothing beats tarnex.

I'm no chemist...barely got through Chem ll in highschool. So my thoughts are based on fragments of long forgotten knowledge. Hopefully some one will know this.

Both the growth and removal of tarnish is the result of and Ion exchange...and so is the process of electroplating which the factory used in nickel silvering...?

The downside to Tarnex is that repeated applications will begin to thin the plating to the point that the parent metal will begin to peak through...Dunno for sure but I have seen something to that effect on more than one occassion. I try to only do one type of metal per batch also. On a Wildones chassis I noted that the copper picked up some silver and vice versa.

The upshot of Tarnex is that it cleans the hard to reach, but all important top of the shoe hanger slot. I find that it also works wonders for fungus in between the chassis and those wiggly hanger plates where the rivet has come loose. After treatment the chassis is blown dry and the rivet is re-staked. Works first time everytime!

I couldnt live without it. It's fast and effecient. Still got 2/3 of the jug I bought over two years ago. A little bit in a tupperware goes a loooong ways and I've cleaned literally a jillion parts with it. Pick up shoes, gear clamps, chassis... whatever. Important to note is that tarnex will not cut through grease so for maximum results I always degrease my junk first.

Like everything else that actually works good it's nasty, Tarnex is really hard on your skin and lord only knows what else on your body or environment. The results of skin contact wont show up until the next day...so ALWAYS wear gloves and dispose of waste properly.

Going back 5 years or so, there was always talk of using an ultrasonic cleaner to get chassis and parts really clean (just don't use it on chrome). I rarely hear that mentioned on this forum.
Still, an ultrasonic cleaner and power supply are the two big items on my "to get" list.

Joe

I use a combo of these various methods for my T-jet chassis and parts.:

First I soak in simple green, and scrub with a toothbrush to get the major old gunk off. Then I use an ultrasonic cleaner with simple green, followed by a good rinse and blow dry. Finally, tarn x to get the corrosion from the hard to reach places. This is followed quickly by another rinse, and a a blow dry. The result is a squeaky clean chassis that looks like new.

Fred

Thanks guys, these are some really great tips !!