Best way to restore metal parts

[Danny Amster]

i found a replacement plenum for the cowl vent on my '47 Dodge.  As you can see in the pic, it's got surface rust but is otherwise sound.  It simple wire brushing the best way to remove surface rust, or is it better to sand blast parts like this?  Note that there are arms that move and threaded parts for adjustment. 

Edited April 2, 2021 by Danny Amster
mispelled word (see edit history)

[DFeeney]

Do you have a Soda Blast shop in your area.?  I have had some things done and was Happy with the results.

[joe_padavano]

Soda blast typically won't remove rust.  Media blast will definitely do a better job than wire brush. I find the latter simply burnishes the rust. In addition, surface rust has pitting, which really only media blasting gets clean. Your two problems are 1) since this is sheet metal, an unskilled or heavy-handed operator will warp the heck out of it and 2) you need to pretty much disassemble it to keep blast media out of all the hinges and moving parts.

 

The real question is, how good does this need to look, and how much effort do you want to put into it? If you don't want to take it apart, I'd use 2" sanding and stripping discs in a pneumatic angle grinder to get as much off as possible, then hit it with something like POR-15 or equivalent (they're all pretty much the same). If this is a part that doesn't show once installed, that's probably your best bet.

[Bhigdog]

What joe said......bob