Using vinegar to remove rust

Hi Mate,
How did you go with the vinegar in the tank??
I'm just about to do mine and was wondering.

Ive got one of my tanks soaking at the moment as well. It seems to be working. Alot safer, slower and cleaner than Phosphoric acid.

will add some photos in a few days.

yep, it works. It is a little slow. But is easier to work with and cheap. Would probably work better/quicker if it was warmer.

Yeah, it flashed pretty damn quickly. Ive just bought a new camera and need to install crap to load photos. Will get to it.
I ended up using electrolysis - sacrificial anode method.
I'm doing 2 tanks and will post up some photos. The first tank cleaned up pretty well, but will hit it again for another day or two (as it was pretty bad), the second I am draining tomorrow. I was abit better organised and got pre-electro shots.

Vinegar has its uses (on chips) but I find it doesn't really kill the rust the way I would like. Electrolysis or phosphoric acid is surely the way forward.

here are my results from the vinegar treatment. i had already put the vinegar in my tank before i saw this thread so never took any before pics. the fuel cap in the pic below is off the tank and the tank was as rusty as this before.


it took about 14 bottles of 13p tescos vinegar.


i left it for about three days and drained off the vinegar and this is what the tank looked like inside. and you can see it had removed a lot of rust but there was still a little bit of rust left mainly near the fuel cap hole so left so i put it back in again. just run it through a rag to get the big bits out first.






after a few more days i drained it again and 99.9% of the rust was gone. the tank is nearly as clean as a new one inside.






one thing you must do is clean the vinegar out straight away. i left it for a few hours before i did it and the the vinegar reacts with the air and the tank gets a horrible brown layer on it and the tank starts to rust very quickly again. sorry no pics i forgot to take any. so i put the vinegar straight back in again gor a few days this cleaned the rust again. so the next problem was how to clean the vinegar out. i didnt want to use water. so i gave i put 1/2 a litre of tfr (traffic film remover) in and gave it a good shake. drained it and put another 1/2 a litre in gave it another shake drained it again. gave it two flushes out with diesel and the tank was fine after this. i just put it straight on the bike and filled it with fresh petrol to be on the safe side.

its well worth the effort. and the good thing is it does not harm your paint work. you can also use the vinegar again on other things. i have a few rd tank in the loft that will be getting this treatment.

does it matter what type of vinegar,some posts on the net state white ,what did you use?

i got mine from makro

which vinegar is best white or malt then ?

I`ve done two tanks with distilled white vinegar,they took about 16 bottles,filled to the brim,shook up well every couple of days,left for about a week,emptied out,powerwashed inside the tank and dried it with a hair dryer,then coated the inside with wd40 to stop flash rusting..

note i am not a certified vinegar tank derusting technician and can not be held responsible for any f**k ups you may make while carrying out these procedures

Where would I get cleaning vinegar ?

I have used Apple Cider Vinegar to clean tanks. Works well but yes you got to rinse and dry them quickly or they will flash rust. I usually let the tank sit for 3 days with the vinegar in them.