driveshaft - de-rusting and rustproofing

[69z27z87]

After degreasing my driveshaft to find the color bands (thanks leaky rear main), I want to de-rust it to return to the "natural" look it started with. I tried using Evap-rust soaked papertowels wrapped in plastic... some progress. Any one find anything better?

How do you keep the driveshaft looking "natural" after de-rusting?.. same with the yokes... hope to retain this nice look...

[cook_dw]

Go to lowes or Home Depot & get a 4" piece of PVC and a cap for said pipe.  Cut to desired length & cap one end.  Slide driveshaft into PVC pipe and fill will approximately 2 gal of evapo.  I used a long screwdriver and vise grips to keep it submerged as it will float.  Pull every couple of hours and wipe down and resubmerge. Keep doing this until clean. 

Caution - stripes on shaft will more than likely lift off and disappear so take excellent pics before hand that way you can duplicate it afterward.  I have used a satin clear on my blue car and on the green car I'm using Cosmoline Rust Veto in aerosol form.  Chick (68camaroz28) has this in his build thread over on TC. 

[69z27z87]

I like it.... Got the pipe, need the end cap....just gotta decide how to protect....

Has anyone had to rebalance the driveshaft after all this fiddling?

[cook_dw]

I havent..

[69Z28-RS]

I like it.... Got the pipe, need the end cap....just gotta decide how to protect....

Has anyone had to rebalance the driveshaft after all this fiddling?

Re-balancing should only be necessary if the crud/rust/dirt was used in achieving the original driveshaft balance.. 

[68camaroz28]

Put the driveshaft in the tube first and then add the 2gallons with yoke going in tube first. I had a lot of paint on my yoke along with stripes. Check as Darrell mentioned but do not wipe over areas that may have paint. Have fun! Five foot piece works well.

[Mike S]

 Clear coat I can see not being a problem, but with a spray on preservative I would think between heat and centrifugal force that the coating would quickly fling off the spinning shaft and eventually cause a film build in the tunnel.

Mike

[69z27z87]

so I built my dip tank and added 1 gallon of evapo-rust.... I must say that these chemicals really are a nice piece of an evolving technology....

Now I just have to flip the shaft over and dunk the other end....

And I am going to add a Matte clear finish.

[69Z28-RS]

Anytime I've used evaporust (or metal rescue) and only submerged 1/2 of the part at a time, it's resulted in a slightly different color in the two halves and a visible 'line' separating the two halves...

[1968 Z28]

Anytime I've used evaporust (or metal rescue) and only submerged 1/2 of the part at a time, it's resulted in a slightly different color in the two halves and a visible 'line' separating the two halves...

X2.....Yup....I agree.  I always submerge  the entire piece to be derusted for that very reason.  If you plan on painting the piece the "line" wouldn't be a problem, but if you want to have the same color over the entire piece then total submersion is the only way to do that.

[cook_dw]

X3

[68camaroz28]

X4 Learned long ago not a great idea!

[sixt9x33rs]

so I built my dip tank and added 1 gallon of evapo-rust.... I must say that these chemicals really are a nice piece of an evolving technology....

Now I just have to flip the shaft over and dunk the other end....

And I am going to add a Matte clear finish.

I used a long piece of plumbing pipe so I could dip the entire driveshaft. You may want to get a longer piece of pipe?

[69z27z87]

I had long enough pipe... just not enough evaporust... bought the last gallon the store had...

that said.. I am not disappointed...looks a lot better than what I started with.... and no one is ever going to see it once the car is on the road... but that's me.

[big iron]

I want to do my 67 T400 shaft but I want to do the shaft with U joints and transmission yoke installed. The U joints are in perfect condition and do not want to destroy plastic injection used to secure the U joints by taking them apart. Do you think this process will harm the U joints?
Bob