From the July, 2011 issue of Classic Trucks / By Jim Rizzo
Restoring, or as I prefer rodstoring, classic pickups is definitely a form of recycling--not that I could be accused of being a tree hugger by any means. But whenever we restore something rather than tossing it in favor of something new we’re really doing our part for the environment. Now that I’ve convinced myself that my hobby does indeed have yet one more redeeming social value, I’d like to share another way we can all extend our shepherding of the planet--by cleaning up all those rusty but still perfectly usable components, parts, and hardware we all hold onto. You know what I’m talking about--the boxes, coffee cans, buckets, and drawers full of rusty old clips, bolts, nuts, washers, and the like that we (or at least I) have hoarded over the years. And we can do it without hours and hours of standing in front of our wire wheels and/or sandblasting cabinets.
As of last week I now recycle my rusty old hardware or deburr and polish small parts, and I’m doing anything but standing at my wire wheel or blasting cabinet. I’m doing so with the help of my new Eastwood vibratory tumbler. The tumbler allows me to load up one of its 12-inch bowls (the kit comes with two of ’em) with rust-cutting media for cleaning up old rusty hardware and the second with Eastwood’s Dry Shine media for returning a like-new luster to others.

Though Eastwood offers a selection of tumblers, I chose their Heavy Duty model, PN 13384, because I knew that it’d end up seeing quite a bit of use and its stout bearings and high-torque motor would be up to the task (I’m planning to over time clean up the complete contents of my numerous junk drawers that are full of rusty and/or dingy nuts and bolts, small brackets and retainers, and just about any doodad that I thought would be useful in the future). So, take a look at a tool that few realize can be a major bonus to we home shop restorers. In my case this baby’s going to save me a lot of cash over time by letting me reuse hardware I would have normally replaced with newespecially all those fine-thread nuts and bolts used on most of our classic pickups. CT



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