Hi all! I have just liberated a poor old 1980s Trangia 27 from a guy round the road from me who was getting rid of it. It has had a hard life following him all over the UK and Europe in the panniers of his motorbike; the same life I'm hoping to give it in due course! I've scrubbed it clean and lit the burner up and alls well with it except the lower windshield and pot grabber are pretty ingrained with muck and ......stuff from over 30 years of life. My question is, could I use a sandblast cabinet with glass medium and a very low pressure to clean them up? We use it to great effect to clean aluminium timing covers for engines at work but I wasn't sure if the Trangia aluminium has a finishing coating to it that could be damaged? Cheers all in advance chaps, I'll post some pictures up of the little beastie when it takes its first coffee trip out on my motorbike Lloyd
I use wet & dry sand paper with water. I start with 1000 grit then 1500 and finish with 2000 grit. Works well for me. Should have similar product in UK. Give the cabinet a try, you will know right away if glass is too rough. I have a set of Tourtech panniers on my GSA and my Sigg kit has a few miles on it. Stay safe HOT SoCal
Every blasting would be risky on that thin material - method I've used to clean up dirty storm cooker pots is to boil with vinegar in the water, resulting in a semi-gloss silky finish that protects well when cooking in them or is easily polished.
By chance found that industrial hand wipes were really good for taking grime off aluminium cycle wheel rims. Not sure what they would do for grimey Trangia Pots? For me it was what do you do with the rest of this wipe, now your hands are clean? - Ah - rub them round a rim and make your hands dirty again! Alloy wheel cleaner might help as well, although it is a bit more potent than hand wipes! If vinegar works, what about my friend, citric acid? Dean
Cleaning old mess tins I used toothpaste if it had a grit in was wonderful tip passed down from my dad when a conscript
Cheers chaps for your advice! I ended up turning the air PSI right down and using our extrafine glass to get the windshield clean. Buffed up with a wire wool it now looks a treat. Cheers all, Lloyd
Just for curiosity I took the blackened base of my aluminium kettle to try some cleaning remedies. The black on mine is a mix of soot from methylated spirit and poorly burned paraffin. Citric acid had little or no impact (not left for long though). Sugar soap solution made a small difference. By far the best outcome was obtained from Tetrosyl Wonder Wheels - not perfect by any means but quite a big improvement. Dean
