As Seen on TV

Inspirational song: Chrome (Trace Adkins)

Ow. Typing is hard. I used my hands too much. But boy, it was satisfying. I learned an incredibly cool trick from The Googles this afternoon, one that actually did a fantastic job.

Months ago, while Dmitri was still just learning to sit up under his own power, Mr S-P had one of the best scrap heap finds. He was throwing out stuff at the metal recycling center, and he saw one of those Cosco high chairs looking beat up and unloved. This one was a much older style, all metal with a swing action for the steps. It was much closer to the one I remembered from my own grandmother's kitchen, even butter yellow like I think our old one was. 

When he brought this chair home, rather than rolling my eyes and being grossed out by someone else's garbage, I was very excited to restore it. I watch a ton of those restoration videos, where they give new live to rusted out tools or worm-eaten cabinets. This was my chance to play along at home. 

It sat in the garage for months, gaining extra dust and spider egg sacs. It had tools stacked on it. But when we made lunch yesterday for the kids, I knew we had to set Dmitri up next to his sister, to eat his grilled cheese sandwich at the table. (We usually hold him, with good reason. Before I could get his sandwich set down, he had crawled up on the table.) The chair was rusty as all get-out, and had a couple of problematic bolts. I started with coarse sandpaper and immediately stopped to clean it with some Lysol. Then I tried sanding again, this time with the small orbital sander. The results were best described as "meh." I stopped to Google what to do. I scrolled through ratings of rust remover products and advice to soak in vinegar overnight, and then saw something interesting. It said to use aluminum foil to remove rust. I didn't have a lot of faith in that, but I didn't have to drive to a store for this one, so why not?

I mostly used the foil on the chrome legs. I couldn't believe my eyes. It knocked off the crud, made rust disappear, and made the remaining metal look silky smooth. How on earth? The Google says the aluminum gives up an ion to the rusted metal, making it essentially healed. I think I need to see that backed up with a little hard science, but that didn't stop me from going to town on all the chrome parts. I ended up filthy and my hands are sore, but the results are undeniable. Tomorrow I will find the can of pale yellow spray paint I bought a year ago to cover up the rest of this thing.