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Q&As since 1989


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How do I restore an object with so much rust?

Recently a friend of mine cleaned her mother's extremely cluttered home and garage. I happened to stop by the home one day when the husband had thrown two old cast iron stoves into the dumpster. They were rust covered, and well spent in years. He was more than willing to let me have them. I've examined both to uncover a company name. One is tall cylindrical in shape, and has a removable silver dome on top. It has lacy cast iron inserts on the sides. (Maybe some kind of foot rest.) It's about 4 ft tall. The fire box seems to be made of a lighter weight metal than the rest of it. It says Pyro 123A on the rusty iron door. The other one is oval,shorter,and really rusty. It does have foot rest on the sides that I inserted. They are about a foot long, curved, and narrow. (no decorative design) The words Marco Sun are on the front door. A neighbor told me it wasn't worth much more than scrap, but I can see it restored, with a tumbling plant on top.
I'd like to know if anyone could tell me what the best way I should go about getting all the rust off. (there appears to be two different kinds of metal on each one.) Is there a specific direction I must focus on when cleaning so as to not damage the cast of the metal? Are their safe cleaning solutions I should look for? I've been searching the internet. Thank you for your help.

Lissie Marie Spencer
Artist - Chas., South Carolina
2006

Try 5% ammonium citrate solution (50 gm citric acid [on eBay or Amazon] /1 lit water/add ammonia [on eBay or Amazon] to pH 3,5). Proprietary products based on citric acid can be good too. Pure citric acid can be used too. Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
2006