How to get rid of rust and grime on stainless

[edbulmer]

Anyone know of the best product to get rid of small rust stains, and grime on the stainless rails?

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by edbulmer

Anyone know of the best product to get rid of small rust stains, and grime on the stainless rails?

No affiliation and I have not tried it but many here have tried it.

Home - Spotless Stainless Removes Rust, Protects Stainless Steel

I used to use Barkeepers friend - liquid.

Bar Keepers Friend | Cleaning Products | Household Cleaning Supplies

[bstreep]

The very best product I've found so far, is Miracle Cloth. It cleans very well, very quickly, and leaves a protection behind.

Spotless Stainless is great for heavy rust, and rust stains. HOWEVER, you MUST rinse it very, very well, and then put protection on behind it. I don't use this for long runs of stainless.

[Ziggy]

There are a lot of products that work (e.g. Flitz, 3M, etc.). After you polish, I suggest passivating the rails to discourage it from rusting again (I use Wichinox -- expensive but you don't need much.)

[zeehag]

barkeepers friend. cheap and effective

[tropicalescape]

Wool in a Can..Good stuff..DVC

[Cotemar]

Collinite920 works on all things BOAT. I clean everything with it, including all my SS.

[David M]

I like Brite Boy

[missnmountains]

We have tried everything, and the best we found is Flitz.

Ken

[barnakiel]

Wichinox. Very good. Cleans and passivizes. Expensivish.

b.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by missnmountains

We have tried everything, and the best we found is Flitz.

Ken

That is important to note.

[Cheechako]

3m microfinish polishing compoound works great on SS and fiberglass, that way you dont need multiple products around. This assumes you are just talking about light surface rusting....

[Balthazar]

Tried Caustic Soda
Powerful but dangerous
About one kg for 5-6 litres ot hot water, left lot of rusty tools overnight, flushed with clean water the next day, all as new ones! Just wipe dry and keep on your boat with a bit of grease.

[roverhi]

Another vote for Barkeeper's Friend. The mild abrasive pared with it's rust bleach, probably Oxalic acid, makes short work of getting rid of rust stains. Stubborn stains take very little rubbing or you can just make up a solution, if using the powder, and let it sit for a while on the stain.

When we had our Westsail and fought the rust streaks from the outboard chain plates, bought a bag of Oxalic Acid from a local chemical supplier. It's a powder that you mix with water and paint on the offending stain hull and then rinse off after a few minutes. Took care of the gelcoat stains without any physical effort. It's a good wood bleach for teak as well. A 40# bag will last forever, still have some after 40 years. Might want to use your entreprenureal bent by packaging it up into small batches and selling it to your neighbors. Might even make some money, at least get the Oxalic for free, and make your dockmates happy.

[Cheechako]

Be careful using any acid product on Highly polished SS. They remove rust quite well, but often attack the grain boundaries to accomplish this.... kind of like opening up the "pores" if you will, then the rust comes back sooner and worse, so you use it again and it gets worse yet. For bad rusting you ay have to use it I suppose....