Amiga 2000 case rust fix

[DarrenHD]

A friend gave me an Amiga 2000 case, which I needed, but unfortunately it had quite a bit of rust on it.

I submerged part of the case in vinegar with some salt, and after two days you can see the result. I had to do some scrubbing to get all the rust off, but overall I am happy with the result!

[deimos]

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

A friend gave me an Amiga 2000 case, which I needed, but unfortunately it had quite a bit of rust on it.

I submerged part of the case in vinegar with some salt, and after two days you can see the result. I had to do some scrubbing to get all the rust off, but overall I am happy with the result!

I've done this with car parts, like door lock mechanisms, with good results too. Do end up with a craving for fish and chips though.

[lesta_smsc]

Nicely done! I should post my revamp of very rusted floppy disk drive. I let it soak in white vinegar and then neutralised with bicarbonate.

It did require some scrubbing but I wish I had a dremel tool or something as it really hurt the precious fingers lol.

[DarrenHD]

Yeah, amazing what vinegar can do...

[8bitbubsy]

Really nice outcome!

[DarrenHD]

Guess what, after 1 year most of the rust has returned. Any advice on what to coat the metal with to keep the rust from coming back?

[dalek]

Anti rust primer and a metallic paint - it won't look original but will look much better. Only other option would be sanding right back and electroplating

[Jope]

If you want it to look original, you need to do yellow passivation to it (a kind of zinc plating) after all of the rust has been removed.

The drive tray wasn't yellow to begin with, perhaps it was not plated in any way, or they used hot zinc or something like that.

You should be able to find one within reasonable distance, larger towns or cities should have someone who does this as a service. I don't recommend DIY here, unless you plan in going into the plating business.

[Reynolds]

Yepp, zinc plating with yellow finish does the job. And if there is well set pools for degreasing and cleaning, that also can treat the thin rust really well. I did some parts this way and the result was always satisfying.

[itsmedoofer]

If you are going to get it plated, you would be wise to strip the old plating first, build up in holes, threads could give you grief, may not take too well on the old plating either. Needs to be nice and clean as well otherwise you can end up with a porous finish and rust again.

If it can't be seen, red (lead) oxide paint would be your best bet..

[ElectroBlaster]

I need to get on top of some Amiga 4000D machines.

One is NASTY and very rusty! I wanted to get it electroplated in zinc and have the top case painted.

Something that I would love to get near is one of those laser rust remover machines... oh that would be so satisfying! seeing years of rust just vanish lol.

Other options is Evaporust but you would need a few 5gallon containers to submerge everything. Or what was suggested already, vinegar and salt!

[itsmedoofer]

To be fair any half decent electroplating shop should have a nitric acid tank for surface preparation....

[Steam Ranger]

I had a case that was rainbow chromatic. A generous coating of WD-40 did wonders.

[giantclam]

Citric acid bath