The previous owner installed Ireland Engineering eccentric camber/toe bolts. They were rusted to hell and combined with shot rear trailing arm bushings, the whole crap setup had to go. Had to use a cut off wheel to fight through the corrosion and this is what is left:
After some wire wheeling, the subframe starts to clean up:
I am pretty anal about the little details and dirty nuts and bolts drive me crazy. This is how they look at first:
I've had fantastic results with EvapoRust. It is commonly found at Autozone, NAPA, wherever. It is a non-toxic chelating agent that eats through rust like no other. It is NOT an acid or an etcher, so it works well to remove rust but does not fully prepare for paint.
The result is striking. Clean metal, almost looks like new hardware and I put NO effort into this. I simply dumped these into a plastic container with EvapoRust and pulled them out the next morning. NO WIRE WHEEL NEEDED!!! (I'm don't sell EvapoRust, I just love the results)
Another product I use to combat rust is phosphoric acid. The brand is Klean-Strip and I found this product at Home Depot. This acid etches the metal and dissolves rust in a very caustic manner.
The reason I use etcher is to prepare the metal for paint. Here is some hardware before:
Afterwards the rust is dissolved and a white flaky acid powder residue remains:
After prep, I start painting with POR-15. A great paint that is brushed on and prevents rust from returning. Very durable and low odor.
Here is some of the hardware drying.
