Tapping broken taps (a.k.a. I'm all tapped out)

[Lisa Perez]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

NIce tip. I'll have to remember that for next year.

Anyways, speaking of cool metal related tips and tricks, does anyone have a good way to remove rust and corrosion from nuts and bolts, or large pieces like car body panels - in case you do want to finally take a chance at fixing up that '68 Chevy Engine that is sitting in your living room - (or '79 Mopar 360 as it may be in my case).

I was thinking just buying a cheap barrel tumbling kit from the craft department of the local store for the nuts and bolts, but will that work?

Is there a chemical way to remove rust and corrosion that would be faster, or easier - more for the bigger parts that won't fit in a tumbler?

I don't mind using a little (or a lot) of elbow grease, but if I can just let things get clean overnight in a solution of whatever, or in a barell tumbler, then that would be great.

Carbonated drinks are supposed to be able to remove rust and corrosion.. but I haven't been able to test it out yet. The CO2 is supposed to react with the oxide that forms the rust, thus restoring the metal to its original state.