My attempt at removing rust from exhaust pipes

[SamBizzler]

I saw a youtube video about how to remove rust with baking soda and lemon juice, I had some free time today so i thought id give it a shot on my extremely rusty exhaust pipes.

I spread the lemon juice/baking soda paste on with a wire brush, let it sit for 30min then scrubbed it thoroughly with the wire brush then rinsed it off with water.

The majority of the rust melted off, but i could not seem to get past the corrosion.

If anyone knows how to get through the last bit of corrosion please let me know, in the mean time this is as good as its going to get for my pipes.

definately not a flawless cleaning, but it looks way better than before..no more rust brown pipes

Before:






After:

[lgk]

i'm not familiar with old gen exhausts but from my experience you cant cure pitted metal with washing. it only works with surface rust.

i would probably lightly blast it, clean it, then coat with high temp black paint.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by SamBizzler

......If anyone knows how to get through the last bit of corrosion please let me know, in the mean time this is as good as its going to get for my pipes.......

Sand-blasting is the best method, but a big machine is required for that.

A rotating wire brush is another good method (wear eye protection).

The pipe is black steel, with a cover of nickel (deposited by an electroplating process).

Once the layer of nickel is damaged, the corrosion of the steel pipe starts.

Now, you have some spots of nickel's layer (no corrosion there), which have some noticeable thickness and the areas of heavy rust.

After you finish cleaning, you need to re-cover the areas of black steel, either with new platting or simply with high-temperature paint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandblasting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_electroplating

[rojoracing53]

Yeah what you have there is the result of corrosion which is pitting. When you removed the rust your also removing some of the original steel so you now have low spots(pitting). In order to make it smooth again you'd have to smooth it out with sanding and polishing but this would require removing more material. If it were me I'd sand blast it for a more uniform finish then high temp paint over a layer of etching primer. It won't look factory but it will look decent for awhile and add the protection you need. I have a blasting cabinet that could probably do an exhuast but I'm a bit far away

[lgk]

if the pipe is mild steel you might be able to ospho to neutralize the rust on a molecular level as an additional prep before you apply the paint.