This one is the White Vinegar and Salt treatment.
It has been doing the rounds on a few forums recently. Made a bit famous by Edd China's online vlogs.
A bit like the wheeler dealers but without the distraction of Mike Brewer. Do note that some of his "remedies" are less effective than others.
In one vlog he mentions cleaning old dry oxidised copper wires using white vinegar and salt.
But I have seen other people use it to clean rusty steel.
So as this forum's own guinea pig, I thought that I would test the theory.
So I got a steel hook from my camper van with a nice coating of 40 years worth of rust.
In a tub with the afore-mentioned chemicals in.
Usual suggestion is to leave to soak for 5 hours.
Light surface corrosion could be 'wiped' off with a kitchen scourer, but heavier pitting could not.
So I left it to soak for another 24 hours.
This was the bracket after another wipe over / scrub with a scouring pad.
Definately less corrosion (orange oxide residue) showing.
The general instruction is to wash the item in warm water and bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate) to neutralise the acid from the vinegar.
I then dried the hook thoroughly with paper towel / tissue paper.... okay, some bog roll.
After a week, the hook is still as clean as it was after the neutralising rinse.
You could use proper "original" Coca Cola, but remember that it will act much quicker, and will dissolve steel, not just corrosion. (assuming that the acid component in Cola has not been watered-down like everything else these days).
Next test will be to try the theory on an old copper loom from the camper van.
Watch this space.
