Chorehorse restoration project

[chris vickery]

I’ve been using ZEP Purple for a couple years now. It works great but remember, SAFETY FIRST!
As it contains lye, very important to rinse and dry your parts thoroughly and to take the appropriate measures like gloves, goggles etc.
It works great on ferrous materials but you don’t want to use on delicate items like aluminum, copper etc.
It’s great at stripping grease and paint. I always start by mixing up a batch with hot water. It would likely work even better a top a burner with a pot.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

I’ve been using ZEP Purple for a couple years now. It works great but remember, SAFETY FIRST!
As it contains lye, very important to rinse and dry your parts thoroughly and to take the appropriate measures like gloves, goggles etc.
It works great on ferrous materials but you don’t want to use on delicate items like aluminum, copper etc.
It’s great at stripping grease and paint. I always start by mixing up a batch with hot water. It would likely work even better a top a burner with a pot.

Lye known here as Caustic Soda. It dissolves Aluminium like butter melting on a hot day. I buy it in 5kg buckets at the Ag supply business, soak your old wheel rims in it with hot water and they come out looking nice and fresh. Then go to the Citric Acid bath, this removes the rust - hot water makes the process far more effective, you can use the 200 litre plastic drums, the dairy farmers buy the teat wash in these drums. The acid need a oil free surface.

[Bob Carriere]

....with a lye solution, in a plastic barrel, using DC current to remove rust, grease, paint and skin if your are not serious. We used a large battery charger and a bank of old 12 v batteries...... it really bubbles off with hydrogen gas so you need a sunny day outside. I used a circular SS plate wrapped to the inside of the barrel. I did both axle housings, one half at a time suspending the axle castings from the tractor bucket....high pressure spray wash/rinse......metal prep ( phosphoric acid ) then POR 15 all in one warm sunny afternoon.

Mike is right you can by the solution in 40 pounds bags in agriculture/feed store a lot cheaper.

If you notice that the skin of your hands are getting slippery, it's your skin fat dissolving in lye......... a very quick rinse in water will resolve the solution.

Goggles.... good thick rubber gloves and old clothes you plan to junk is best.

Dispose of the barrel content one a heavy rainy day.....keeps the weeds away for the rest of the season.

[chris vickery]

In my shop I have a rubberized apron, face shield with goggles and high cuffed PVC gloves whenever I get into heavy duty cleaning.

[Jordan Baker]

More parts out after soaking for a few days. It was interesting to see three different colours of paint that had been applied.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

More parts out after soaking for a few days. It was interesting to see three different colours of paint that had been applied.

That is very typical of any equipment that was painted by the army. I recall the many times I sanded back the old paint on various ex-military vehicles , usually two or three distinctly different shades of green appear one after the other.

I just spotted another Horse FS on facebook ..

The project is coming along nicely.

[Mike K]

This Horse needs some Oats and a warm stable .

I have contacted the seller . Will see if I can save it .