My first Lobstertail

[jayhawkhenry]

I have felt like a kid waiting for Christmas all week waiting for this to arrive and it is finally here. The first in my small collection. It is marked Lachmann 15 and Lachmann Berlin 16. It has a lot of surface rust to clean off, but I am not sure how much polishing I should do. What are your opinions?
Thanks, Henry

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

First of all Congrats, I love the unique design of Lachmann Kuirassier helmets with the straight up and down lobstertail design.

as far as cleaning it, I am not an expert on this and will let others chime in, but I was thinking a very, very fine steel wool in a small area to see what happens?

James

 

[coert65]

Nice helmet! I agree with James, use a very light steel wool, with some machine oil, to remove the rust.
But, thread carefully. No scratching should be visible on the helmet.. Be very careful.
Other members might chime in with better visions on this, because I never had to deal with this.

 

[b.loree]

I would definitely clean off the rust as if you leave it, it will only get worse, really eating into the steel. What I see right now seems to be just light surface rust. There is a rust remover that members have used and talked about here but unfortunately, I can't remember the name at this time. Probably someone can provide that here. I used it successfully on an M15 wappen. I would apply some of this to a pad of 0000 steel wool and go at the helmet. If there are some pitted spots you may have to use a coarser steel wool. My advice.

 

[JzPf]

I agree with Brian, gotta remove the rust or it will only get worse.
I don’t know if anyone else has tried this method, but I’ve used a crumpled up aluminum foil, dip it in water and rub it on the surface rust, the chemical reaction should remove the rust.
My two cents worth for what it’s worth.

Hope you post the finished product. Good luck.

Cheers

Dennis

 

[Neil Young]

Evaporust is a product that a lot of machinists use. They soak parts in it or just wipe it on and it seems to work good and it doesn't hurt your skin. Just a thought.

 

[Amybellars]

The rust remover, the pink jelly thing, removes the rust by "eating" it up but the polish surface will also have a different shade of colour.

I have 2 lobsterpots shoaking in diesel and I do a check on their progress every quarter and seems good. The rust drops off bits by bits without affecting much. Average 6-8 months of soaking.

They are now in the diesel for 6-8 months and I will check on their progress tonight and report.

 

[Amybellars]

The rust remover that pink jelly thing is called loctite natural jelly.

My diesel has turned darker brown again so rust is taking off.

Hope it helps.

 

[Schiavona13]

Amy How do you remove de diesel smell ?

 

[911car]

I have felt like a kid waiting for Christmas all week waiting for this to arrive and it is finally here. The first in my small collection. It is marked Lachmann 15 and Lachmann Berlin 16. It has a lot of surface rust to clean off, but I am not sure how much polishing I should do. What are your opinions?
Thanks, Henry

It is not an easy task. The challenge is to remove the rust without removing the gray paint, or what is left of it. If you use a chemical it is almost impossible to protect the paint. I found a Lachmann M15 in the same condition as yours and for this reason I decided not to use a chemical rust remover, and do everything by hand with fine abrasive. A hell of a work. I used a miniature electric drill to work around painted rims and nuts... but the result was exactly what I wanted. I can send pictures.

 

[b.loree]

Evaporust is what I used on my M 15 Oldenburg. The wappen from my helmet was rusted, so I carefully applied this product to the rusted areas so as not to remove paint . It worked well but I watched things carefully and washed it off once I had reached the condition I wanted.

 

[SkipperJohn]

Henry,
This is going to sound like I'm crazy, but it works on light rust:
Cut a potato in half and apply dish soap to the cut end. Use the potato like a scouring pad and rub on the rust.
The rust will react with the potato and soap, and it will disappear.
I haven't tried this on painted surfaces, so be careful on the grey paint.

Just because this sounds so nuts, I wanted to find verification that somebody else has done this. I found the same procedure here:
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-clean-rust-off-old-loaf-141206

This site has some other interesting ideas too.
Good luck!
AND congratulations on a wonderful addition to your collection!

John :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

 

[Amybellars]

Amy How do you remove de diesel smell ?

I raised it with water and reapply lubricant.

So far my first soaked in helmet works

I am going to try John's potato method

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

Evaporust is absolutely the best way to go.

Google it; it removes the rust like no other product.

However, you don't want to soak the helmet, so you can layer the helmet is paper towels wet with the product and put it in a bag (to prevent evaporation) and check it a daily. it really is an amazing product. However, do everything you can to keep it off of any remaining grey oxidized fittings/trim, as Evaporust can actually remove bluing.

Evaporust is a product that a lot of machinists use. They soak parts in it or just wipe it on and it seems to work good and it doesn't hurt your skin. Just a thought.

 

[jayhawkhenry]

First, thank you all for your help and support. I removed the surface rust with oil & fine steel wool. Then used my Dremel tool and the red polish along with Soft cloths & simichrome polish. There is still some dark patina, that would probably polish out, but I decided to leave it for now considering the interior. I attempted to stabilize the liner with Picard. It was like working with dry leaves. Overall I pleased to be the custodian of it for now.

 

[jayhawkhenry]

Here is a side by side.

 

[Sandmann]

Nice work...looks much better. Well done :bravo:

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

Looks good!

James

 

[911car]

Excellent progress. Here is mine after derusting with ultra-fine abrasive paper and polishing, as described above. It was as least as badly rusted as yours.

 

[Sandmann]

stunning result...nice work :bravo: