Question on cleaning up a find...

[mtrf2b]

Found a fishing reel diving yesterday and it seems like it would work fine if I clean it up a bit. There is a lot of barnacles and such all over it and I don't want to risk messing anything up by scraping it all off. Anyhow, I was wondering if there was anything you could do to clean it up where it would be easier on the stuff. Basically, is there anything that you can soak it in to make the barnacles and assorted other things fall off.

any help would be appreciated, even if it's just advice to throw it away.

thanks a lot and have a good one

 

[riverdiver]

We have zebra mussels here in Michigan. What I use is a 5 gallon pail put one gallon of pool chlorine and 3 gallons of water put artifact in and put the lid on and come back 2 days later and all of the zebra mussels have fallen off. Then soak in 5 gallons of water for a day to rinse off. Reels are hard to clean I have found plenty and they end up with sand in them, and you will have to take it all the way down regreese and put back together.
Ed

 

[Lee Taylor]

Salt water growth can be removed by soaking the item in a 50/50 mix of apple cider vinegar and water for about 24 hours

 

[mtrf2b]

Thanks for the help! It's just one of the first "cool" things I've found underwater, plus my other( slightly less expensive) hobby is fishing so I figured why not try and make it work. Thanks Again.

 

[mtrf2b]

I soaked it, scrubbed it, tore it down and greased it up. It cleaned up pretty good and it surprisingly works great.

Not exactly the "shiny metal" that I'd love to pull from the bottom but it'll do for now.
Thanks again!!!

 

[Lee Taylor]

WOW. It looks great