OK, here is my dilemma. I purchased some lemon juice just to give it a try. The cans I used were mystery flats that had the dark colored rust and that had been laying on top of the ground since the day they were discarded. I soaked them for about 12-16hours. 1qt. lemon juice to 1 gallon hot water. When I pulled the cans this morning, I was actually suprised to see some paint and able to distinctly identify each can. This was great to me. There was 2 gold Pearls(gem of fine beers), 2 diff. Falstaffs, a Pabst, a black Miller's and a Pearl(woodgrain). Alot of the cans, the paint would actually come off under warm running water exposing bare metal. I even tried cold water. I could take my thumb, barely rub, and the paint came right off. What did I do wrong?
a.) Too strong of mixture for this type of can
b.) Let them soak for too long
c.) Water temp was wrong
d.) Should of used oxalic
e.) or Cans like this have been exposed to the heat, humidity and sunlight for too long messing the paint up before they rusted and wouldn't have cleaned up regardless of what I used.

I am not sure of what to use or when to use it? Please help. Let me hear from your experiences.

The mystery O/I did indeed turn out to be a Bud. It is an IRTP Bud O/I. Which is older non IRTP or the IRTP? Which is tougher? Thanks for your help. Robert

Robert, All Internal Revenue Cans are Older. This statement was dropped March 1st 1950. Unless it's a Baldy Krueger with no IRTP which is the earliest can from early to mid 1935. Robert Possibly none of the above but I think it is sometimes just certain cans paint is prone to flaking or peeling no matter what. Lots of times it's white cans or white parts of cans & you can see the white is thin & looks funny, not a good sign & poor canidate for a Bath possibly. I think poor adhesion is the Culprit here which could be a number of reasons why. LEON.

Oh, Forgot, I think all those Gold Buds are IRTP. But the later ones from around 1949 are not O/I & some say this is the tougher can & shorter run. LEON.

Often, mystery cans that are heavily rusted will loose paint. Don't let the anti-citric crowd kid you. This happens with oxalic too.

Many times, when cans are "mystery" cans, they have been sitting on top of the dump and exposed to sun for years before rusting. What happens is the finish oxidizes after being bleached by the sun. The paint, due to sunlight has turned chalky and porus. The rust bleeds through and covers the surface. Once the rust is gone, the chalky paint just brushes or washes away.

Here's what I'd suggest. Check the cans more often. Cans that are sun-beat need to be only cleaned so far. Next time check the cans after only six hours and in 3 hour increments. Even if you use oxalic, you have to sometimes be careful or you'll loose paint on heavily oxidized cans like that. Just check them more often and you may get a few keepers.

Vince

Like the toehr gusy said it could be any or several of the above reason plus others. Though sometimes mystery cans will clean up better than a can that has lots of color and very little rust. Look at my went digging post and look at the flat on the bottom row right next to the 16oz. That can had very little paint and that burnt looking rust but almost all of it came off...was just a old boh that was faded underneath but if it was a tough can would have been very happy. I have several rules on keeping mystery cans...if its a old dump(30's-40's), if there are other tough cans in the dump regardless of age and if im not finding any other cans they will go home with me. If im in a 50's dump full of very common cans i usually wont mess with them but try to bring a couple home just in case...
mike

yeah...agreed..basically..now that I can tell 30s cans from say 50s cans....if they are really unprotected mystery flats..I usually avoid 50s cans unless there have been some other really weird ones found around......someone can probaly whip up a little primer (good webpage perhaps - Mark?) on how to tell a 30s mystery can from a 40s one.....weight...lids....etc....lots of little tricks...Ive used both citric and oxalic.....use mostly oxalic myself..a good test would be to try some similar mystery cans in oxalic..and see which come out better.......there are definitely different sorts of cans which soak better with different sorts of acids...ditto on ground conditions.....Im sure a lot of people can comment futher...my ideal can dumping conditions are scatter dumping in pine forests.....the cans are often brown but its actually more of a rusty grime which forms on the cans.....cans buried in pine seem to coat themselves ..thus protecting the paint..and NO LUMPS.....cans in contact with different soils..different results.....cans in clay or wet areas can have great color..but...big lumps...which everybody has varying degrees of success...mostly depending on skill...I myself let lumpy cans or really nasty ones sit in water for awhile before soaking.....it lets the acid work quicker....a lot of times you keep cans in too long because you want those lumps to "just soften up a little more"...let them soften in water (maybe really weak acid)...then see how much you can clean them off before going into the acid.......just my 2 (200?) cents..hehe

In response to your question, the correct answer is D.

Scott

Just wanted to say thanks to all who responded. I will keep all advice in consideration. I purchased some stuff called Bar Keeper's Friend for removing rust on metal objects. $1.50 at the Family Dollar. The side of container says "contains oxalic acid." I poured a decent amount in hot water and sunk a few cans to try it out. This was about noon. I have been checking them every 2 hours. A 4 city Bud cleaned up pretty nicely. A mystery surface can turned out to be another Dorf. Pretty happy with this one because it is actually round. The other 3 I found were either flattened or holed. A Wellington Stout is cleaning up as well. Because that Bud O/I was pretty shot, I will give it a try. Crowntainer hasn't shown any paint yet. Has anyone else ever tried this stuff before on cans and if so, did the cans turn out good or bad compared to straight oxalic. Robert

Robert,

I've used Barkeepers friend in the past. It was ok. It left a soapy residue. I switched to oxalic acid and it worked better. A few years back we found some Charro's. I used citric and oxalic on them. The oxalic worked better. The citric faded the greens in the Charro. I definitely recommend oxalic. BTW look for a box o cans real soon!

Later,

Tom I.

I really am looking forward to those cans Tom. Hope you don't mind the bottles in return. Wish I would have got into cans earlier. I had 2 pre-pro embossed Houston Brewing and Ice Co. bottles that Beerfully Bruce Mobley purchased from me off of Ebay about a month ago. Still have some nice bottles to send you. Robert

cleaning cans is kinda fun after you get hang of it.
I ruined my first 2 batches, after that I havent really had any problems except for stepping on my
only Krueger Baldy Ale keglined front find one night.
after that I made a new rule, dont go out to shed to check on cans after drinking more than 5 beers.

Danielj, I bet you use oxalic. Seems to me the majority use oxalic. Being buzzed, did you get ****** or laughed about it. I would have let out a few cuss words. I broke a few nice bottles in my day. My best two bottles of 2005 were both broke by me as I was CAREFULLY digging them out. One was a nice pre-pro square whiskey from Peoria, Il. and the other was a c. 1890's drugstore bottle from Grapevine, Texas. Both were firsts for me. Robert

I called myself some very bad names and nearly cried.
I use oxalic but would like to experiment more with
citric after reading Candogs article.
I do use citric to clean old toys and metal objects
I find, it works much better than oxalic on those items.

Robert,

Sorry for no emails from me. The email is down...will reply soon.

Thanks,
JW

No problem John. Really looking forward to hearing from you. Robert