Rust Removal

Since the Dandelion was sitting in a garage for years before I got it, there’s a lot of rust on many of the parts. As we moved it into its new home, rust was falling off of the bottom fan cover all over the place, so the first priority was taking care of that to avoid making a mess every time I work on the unit.

Rusty bottom fan cover

I tried to just vacuum it off, but there was so much paint/rust flaking off all the time that it was no use. I ended up using a wire brush on an angle grinder to remove the paint/rust over large areas and get down to bare metal, then a wire brush on a drill to get into the corners and places I couldn’t get with the bigger brush.  Once that was done, I gave it a fresh coat of paint. Once it dries it should be ready to install again, all shiny and rust-free. I expect I’ll probably have to repeat this process for a number of other metal parts in the system as I proceed.

Bottom fan cover stripped down to bare metal

Bottom fan cover with a fresh coat of paint