95 Mongoose Hooligan citric acid bath process

[ED209]

Massive thanks to 'Michael Bmx' for this 1995 Mongoose Hooligan survivor.

95 saw the launch of the DMC bike so the Hooligan is often overlooked and as a result there's not many about.

Here's the bike from Michael's pictures ... a bit of love and few replacement parts were in order

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and how it arrived with me

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I took pics of the citric acid bath clean up and rust removal steps for instagram so here goes :-)

[ED209]

First step was to fully strip the bike and decide what I needed to replace - the chainwheel and crank were bent and the seat was trashed. The front wheel had been replaced at some point but replacing that wasn't vital.

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second step - 'Gunk' everything ( other degreasers are available - I'd avoid petrol ) to remove the oil, tar & general crap followed by a soapy water wash before it goes into the citric acid bath.

Note the condition of the frame under the platform ... that was the worst bit.

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[ED209]

step 3 - Citric acid bath

Either buy a suitable container or make yourself a bath ... I buy a cheap tarpaulin from Wilko and 'borrow' a drawer from somewhere :-)

I always use 500g of Citric powder mixed with hot water for a frame sized container - the bricks fill up the space so the mixture stays strong and I keep filling till its all covered - I usually leave the rusty parts in for up to 12 hours but I check regularly - these were only lightly rusted so they were done after 5/6 hours.

I don't like messing about so I usually put everything in ... it gets the rust out of bolt heads and brake adjusters ... even gyro cable ends ... rust marks off alloy ... and YES as you will see ... your decals stay untouched.

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Here's an action shot :-) the rust fizzes away ... no rubbing ... no effort ... NO COLLUSION!

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When they are done all the parts need a good rinse with washing up liquid and water and left to dry before the final stage

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[ED209]

Final stage before rebuild is to polish and protect the parts ... I use Peek.

The can says put it on with a cloth but I always use my hands ... which means you use loads less as it doesn't absorb into your hands like a cloth would ... and you can use your fingers to get the polish into all those hard to reach places 

I then use a soft cloth to rub the polish off ( don't let it dry ) and then a different clean soft cloth to finish it.

So here's that rusty bit under the platform again ...

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The citric acid can't replace lost chrome but it can get rid of ALL the rust to give you the best 'survivor' condition possible ... and the Peek seals the raw bits ... you can see theres still a bit of pitting in the chrome but I can live with that ... if you can't then you just need a little time to get the anal obsession with pefection out of your system 

Did a quick rebuild to see how it looked 

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[hotdog]

Excellent. Are you gonna ride it Ed?

[dp and chopper dude]

Spot on. That's looking great 

[Mikku]

Came up a treat!

[ED209]

Excellent. Are you gonna ride it Ed?

Gonna roll it round at MK 

[pickle]

top job that Ed