Criterion Dynascope RV-6 Project: "Naval Jelly and Elbow Grease"

With the scope disassembled, it was easy to see that removing the rust that had built up over the many years of direct weather exposure was not going to be an easy task.

Worse yet, the majority of the original paint job was a loss as well with brittle flaking and loose chips falling free at just the slightest touch.

I needed a safe product (and procedure) that could simultaneously remove rust and all other debris from each part leaving me with, more or less, a clean surface ready for a fresh coat of paint.

Enter... Zud, Naval Jelly, steel wool and lots of hard scrubbing!

My grandfather, who was an expert at these type of things (guru of grease, Grainger-aholic, wholesaler extraordinaire), had first recommended Naval Jelly to me when I was just a teen and I have been using it ever since.

It is a strong and safe phosphoric acid based pink jelly that you apply to a surface and let sit for a while before scrubbing off to reveal a new, rust free look.

Better yet, it tends to eat through just about anything including old paint, dirt and other grime making it perfect for the sort of application where you are not trying to spare any of the original surface.

Before and in-between coats of Naval Jelly I decided to scrub each parts surface vigorously with Zud, a Bon Ami-like, heavy duty powder cleanser, in order to remove any obviously loose debris.

In order to facilitate the de-rusting/stripping process, I secured and old box that I used to contain all the mount parts once they were covered in jelly.

This made it easy to cleanly transport the parts around and worked to keep my workspace clean of the arrant blobs of jelly that tend to drip from the surfaces as they "cure".

Though most parts of the clock drive and setting circles are made of aluminum and brass, the hardware is not and corroded right along with the rest of the mount leaving nasty stains on many of the rust proof surfaces as well as resulting in the seizing of some set screws.

Covering these parts with ample amounts of Naval Jelly I sought to remove whatever stains and grime had infected them as well as free up any stuck hardware.

A typical aluminum pan worked to contain these parts as they were being jellied and, as with the box of mount parts, kept the work area clean.

Each coat of jelly was given roughly 24 hours to "cure" after which time I coated each part with Zud and scrubbed until the jelly was no more and all lose material was removed.

I used steel wool to scrub the mount parts but a typical scrub-top cleaning sponge for the clock drive parts so as not to mar the surface of parts that would not eventually be painted.

On several occasions I actually scrapped away the debris from the mount parts using a screwdriver as these surfaces needed some serious attention and would inevitably be completely painted so there was no fear of them being marred by scratching.

After a few of iterations of this process the surfaces of most parts began to look very clean and paintable but there was still a serious issue.

Some rust was simply out of reach of the jelly and my scrubbing.

The entire inside of the pier, for example, was covered in rust yet it was virtually impossible to cover it with jelly much less scrape it clean after the jelly had done its work.

Further, there was rust in nooks and crannies that were equally unreachable... I began to realize that, while the Naval Jelly approach worked to remove most of the rust that was easily accessible from the surface, I needed another approach if I wanted to really rid this mount of all rust.

Next up: "Evaporating the Way"