Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion DOES CLEANING RUST OFF AN OIL CAN RUIN ITS VALUE?

WILL CLEANING RUST OFF A COLLECTIBLE OIL CAN DIMINISH ITS VALUE? WHAT SAY YOU ALL?
I know… it depends, right? I thought this topic might make a good ongoing discussion for the forum.
I’ve been collecting oil cans for a while now (particularly 5 gallon cans), and have always wondered about this. We’ve all seen the odd can at a show somewhere where someone attacked it with Naval Jelly and destroyed half the graphics, or left ugly steel wool swirl marks in the rusty metal. And of course, I wouldn’t pay a dime for any one of these. But if done carefully and correctly, I personally believe a really good rust-cleaning WILL enhance the value.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with soaking a few low-end cans in a plastic trashcan full of molasses water for a few days, and it does a pretty good job. The rust washes right off and the bare metal keeps an overall sort of patina. Depending on how many days you leave it soaking, some rust stains will remain, but no actual rust. This actually looks kind of cool and adds to that old classic look.
Although this method doesn’t seem to attack the graphics paint to any extent, I must admit I have been careful to hang the can in such a way that only the top or bottom is submersed in the liquid up to just below the paint line. I’ve cleaned car panels this way for years on old restoration projects, and it just works great on them. For a demonstration, search on YouTube for “ Remove Rust from Metal and Panels the Easy Way: Video 1 and 2.“ The reason I like this method is that it is totally non toxic to plants, pets and kids, although it does stink to high heaven… kind of like stale or moldy beer, and it only gets worse with time. One of these days I’m going to find a cheap low-end rusty barn hanger with some good graphics on it, and completely submerse the thing in this solution to see what it does to the graphics. In the YouTube videos above, the host says it only removes the rust, but not the paint. I don’t know yet if it will dull or fade paint, but I’ll post the results in a few weeks with pictures when I find out.
More recently, I’ve also been experimenting with removing rust off some old mercury car springs using the “washing soda, water, and a battery charger” method. This also works terrific and is totally non toxic as well. Again, this method leaves totally clean metal with an occasional remaining stain here and there, and it’s much faster than the molasses water. You can also see this method demonstrated on YouTube.
Finally, has anyone tried the newer non-toxic sprays such as Rust Off? I watched a demo of this stuff on YouTube as well yesterday evening, and it really looks promising. I have no idea how expensive it is though, and imagine that with really heavy rust, several bottles of this product will be needed.
So having said all that… again… what say you all? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Should I just watch ambly by as all my old 5 gallon oil cans slowly disintegrate, or is this a worthwhile effort? Not sure I'll ever have the courage to try any of this on my G4 Polly can, but at the very least I'm looking forward to everyone's opinion. By the way, I’d better not hear of anyone trying this on composite/cardboard cans, or I’ll personally come over and we’ll have an oh-so-pleasant discussion! (Just kidding)
Cheers everyone!
Bob “that good gulf guy”

Nope, Sorry for the short answer.

Did washing only your Feet count when Mom said wash-up fer Dinner? NOPE

No smart ***** reply here.

Thanks for taking the time to post your project ideas and results thus far. I'm looking forward to see how your sign idea turns out. When you say molasses water..exactly what is that...like a 50/50 mix or what?

I think you're on to the right idea. Cleaning the rust off of a can without making it look like you did is the key.

Might want to post up some pics of your progress..I'm sure a lot of the guys would like to see them.

IMO, cleaning the rust off a 5 gallon can in most cases will enhance the value if the logo and/or graphics are left in good condition..... Here is a Veedol 5 gallon I cleaned up last year about this same time...

Front before:



Front after:



Back before:



Back after:

definitely helps the appearance and value..

I see nothing wrong with taking extra steps to enhance or preserve an item that otherwise may not survive and be lost forever.

I know I'm probably going to get a backlash of comments for this next statement. I have some nice cans that were placed on cement floors and the bottoms were rusty with some heavy scaling and pitting. I masked the sides of the cans and sandblasted the bottoms. I then took some tremclad rust paint and poured it in the can and shook the can around and allowed the paint to dry. I then spray painted the bottom with some silver hammer tone paint.
This way the bottom of the can is preserved and won't get worse and creep up the sides of the can.

When i found better cans, I had no problem selling the cans. Not everyone is an "advanced collector" nor do they wish to be and they simply enjoy displaying vintage items and prefer entry level originals over reproduction or fantasy items.

Hope these are the correct links;
Video 1
Video 2

Those are the ones!

Hey Bob Richards... excellent results on your Veedol can above and I love the patina left on the surface. What did you use to clean the rust off?
Cheers,
Bob(that good gulf guy)

Here is a Penn Trump can that i'm working on now (removing dents and rust) and still has a ways to go but does look better already. I bought it cheap and two sides should look pretty good for display. I used aluminum foil on the top and bottom with good results, but sell working on the dents. I think it's is worth more and looks better for display.

Strange, I remember something about using alum foil on cans (and bumpers) also... LOL

Lowright, How did you massage the dents out?

Bob,
That's where i got it, here on oldgas! Not sure if i did it right but it did work.


I made different mandrels out of steel. I just got started so i'll let you know how it works. It's tricky, i think it would work better if the mandrel had a swivel on the end instead of a ball like i used. I'm going to make a swivel that i can reuse on the end of different tools.

Yes, I know... I'm the one who put the info out-there.