It´s getting finally a bit colder (and wetter) here in Europa and it seems that the hot summer times are definitely over. Time for me to finally speed up the refit process of my King´s Cruiser 33 sailing yacht and eventually closing the porthole windows of the hull. You can read here how I´ve prepared the new Plexi glass windows – they are now ready to be mounted. Mounting will be a combination of glueing the windows to the GRP (which I had previously tested with the head´s window – read it here) and setting up bolts and nuts.

Let´s try it out – adding Coke to the nuts

These bolts and nuts – some 167 for all 4 windows to be exactly – had been slightly rusty and covered with Silicone and other stuff. Time to get them clean. Although I do have a great rust removing solution (read about it here ) I wanted to try out what this is all about – can you really dissolve rust with Coke? Well, let´s give it a shot, I thought. Coke is acidic so there might be something true to it. I poured a good portion of Coke over the nuts and bolts and let it react on the steel overnight.

Letting the fluid do it´s thing

Next day I dumped the Coke (it was smelling not very appealing) and washed the stainless steel bolts and nuts for several minutes under fresh water so get off the sugar, the acidic stuff and the rest of the product. Let´s have a look at before/after pictures, I thought. Well. The outcome is not very convincing. I must say that the rust hadn´t gone even I tried to rub it off. It´s just not working. What was working quite well on the contrary way that I could peel off dirt, filth, even paint from the bolts with ease. I also had the impression that the metal was shining even brighter than before.

Before and after … the effect is not so stunningly vast

So, if you ask me, the myth is busted. Coke does not seem to be a good rust remover and if there will be coming up some future jobs in this field I will definitely switch to pro-products again for sure.

Anyway, one good thing to mention: I discovered that there are 3 different lengths of bolts for mounting the windows which will significantly complicate the task ahead. Where should I apply the small, where the middle sized and where the long bolts? Oh my, let´s find out in the coming weeks.

 

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