New but determined
57 posts
Jan 02, 2016
3:34 PM
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I mentioned it before but someone here mentioned that the cover plates on Special 20's are made of stainless steel and what I had was only one spot so I thought it had to be a tiny bit of steel debris from manufacturing so I was able to wipe it off and guess that I was wrong. But I had checked elsewhere on the Internet and I'm guessing it was a dealer comment and it also said the cover plates are stainless steel.
That was several weeks ago- today I was replacing the cover plate screws with some with Phillips heads and when I took the cover plate off on the older harp which I bought 5-7 years ago in the key of G but never actually played it until recently, well it's rusting all along the front on the inside and it's for sure rust along the whole cover plate. This one is marked as Special 20 Marine Band.
I pulled off the cover plates on the newer Special 20 Progressive harp I've had only a couple of months and rust is showing on the underside around the hole at the end where the bolt holds the cover plate down. Dang...
Last Edited by New but determined on Jan 02, 2016 3:35 PM
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Mirco
354 posts
Jan 02, 2016
4:36 PM
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Have you tried some Happich Simichrome on it? It's worth a shot.
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Marc Graci
YouTube Channel
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nacoran
8858 posts
Jan 02, 2016
4:53 PM
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Stainless steel isn't actually rust 'proof', just rust resistant. There was a jewelry store near me that spent an insane amount of money (high 5 figures, I think) for this gigantic waterfall design made out of stainless, but the artist they hired didn't know what he was doing and didn't treat the edges right. The whole thing started to rust!
Type in 'how to stop rust on stainless steel' in Google and you should get a bunch of helpful advice and some product suggestions. The main step, it seems, is to scrub off the rust, clean it real well and then dry it real well. That should do the trick by itself, but there are further steps you can do but that should be enough.
Also, don't store anything with rust on it touching anything that could rust. I have a friend who used to work in a metal shop. I was actually with him at the jewelry store that day. He needed help picking something for his gf and had me along. He told the guys at the jewelry shop what probably happened is that when the guy was grinding the pieces he probably didn't clean his grinder and probably got rust dust into the crevices which was enough to get the rest to start rusting.
Try to keep your harps somewhere where they can air out. Prolonged stretches of them staying damp isn't great for them.
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Nate
Facebook
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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Ian
203 posts
Jan 02, 2016
5:23 PM
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Yep. From plenty of experience with marine stainless steel... It does rust, even the really good stuff (which I doubt cover plates are) . It just rusts differently, I'm not sure of the science but it's always more on the surface than digging it's way in. Scratches and marks tend to attract it.
Keep the metal clean and let it dry quickly.
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Adam Pritchard
86 posts
Jan 03, 2016
12:59 AM
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This may sound crazy but try soaking the cover plates in Coca COla for a couple of hours then rubbing with a cloth our gentle scouring pad (one for non-stick pans). Coke is surprisingly good at removing rust.
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Kingley
3987 posts
Jan 03, 2016
2:15 AM
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Just get some Autosol. It will bring them right back up again nice and shiny.
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florida-trader
856 posts
Jan 04, 2016
5:01 AM
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I second the motion for Autosol. I picked some up a while back after someone suggested it on another thread. It works super well. In fact, I just picked up two more tubes of it a couple of weeks ago. It is pretty inexpensive. Look on eBay. $6.45 with free shipping from Hong Kong. You can't beat it.
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Tom Halchak
www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
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