how do I clean hard rust off of liscense plate

[the ham man]

i have recently dug up a 1930 liscense plate that is from maryland and it has great embossing. i tried cleaning it up and got a little rust off but I know that theres no way to get all of it off with what im doing. it actually still has paint under the rust and I would like to keep the paint and lose the rust. if this is impossible then i would gladly get rid of both and repaint it. please help. thanks in advance.

 

[Erik T]

have you tried clr? i'm not too sure about this so don't do it right away but I heard muratic acid works faster but It might damage the plate somehow.

 

[Nickevlau]

There are a few threads talking about oxalic acid as a rust remover. I have heard of muratic acid, except used for bottles.

 

[buriedtreasuretime]

Joey: There is a product made by Krud Kutter specifically for rust. It is an amazing product and will restore any heavily rusted material with out damaging paint that is not already damaged by the rust. I speak form personal experiance and I have never had a product perform as well and as throughly as Krud Kutter for rust did.
You will have to soak it in a shallow pan but you will be amazed with the outcome. Tim[]

 

[the ham man]

Tim can I find this product in an average grocery store? ive never heard of it before.

 

[waskey]

Joey, I believe ACE hardware sold Krud Kutter; the name sounds very familiar from when I had to stock all the cleaning supplies.

 

[the ham man]

thanks hen. i will definetely look into that. Tim, is there anything else I should know before cleaning my liscense plate such as how long to keep it in there.

 

[RED Matthews]

Hello the ham man; I usually spray them with PB Blaster until I can work on them. I have quite a collection of L.Plates. The oldest was made of leather. When I do clean them I put them in a pan with Extend for a while and then touch up the bad spots. Just to tell you about my old N.Y. plates. RED Matthews.

 

[markh]

You might try electrolytic cleaning. You'd need a plastic tray, water, some washing soda, a piece of iron, some wire and a battery charger. this will disolve the rust without attacking the the underlying metal. Try a google search on electrolytic rust removal. eg. here's the general idea:

http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

hope this helps,
Mark