What an absolute cow of a job that was!
Happy with the results though
After soaking them in the vinegar (for 2 weeks!), rinsed then off in Bicarb / water mix for times ranging from a few minutes (too short as surface rust reappeared) up to overnight (I CBF taking them out yesterday arvo!), then gave them a spray with Lanox & all appear OK - at least, much, much better than they were!
In some cases though, as well as the rust, it's also lifted the chrome off, sometimes in actual pieces!
Unfortunately, Sidchrome appear to be the worst hit with this
Now that I can actually read what's on them, it turns out there are quite a few Dowidat & Sidchrome in there, Gordon Tools from Sheffield, England & Heyco, West Germany, some of which are also marked Mercedes Benz!, plus more from Taiwan & Japan.
I thing I will say though, when Paul said wear gloves ^, I'll upgrade that to full, rubber washing-up gloves, because the vinegar goes through disposable latex even better than it does rust!
My hands look like I'm getting ready for a Brown & White Minstrels show!
Couple of interesting ones came out though as per the photos, where the metal of the sockets has actually been eaten away!
I'm not sure if they were normal sockets though as slanted sides rather than straight
There were only these two (unless others are now just part of the sludge in the bottom of the tray!
), so who knows
