Subject: [Mgs] soldering corroded copper

From: Rick Lindsay <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 04:42:18 -0700 (PDT)

Hello Friends,

Generic question for the metallurgy gifted:  What chemical do you recommend
for cleaning away copper corrosion so I can solder electrical connections?

Background: My '69 Silver Shadow was a techno-marvel for its day.  The entire
fuse, relay and circuit breaker panel is a tough, thick, glass fiber printed
circuit board.  The connectors and fuse holders are clamped to the board/lands
with copper rivets.   Today, 43 years later, the copper of the lands, fuse
holders and rivets has a nice non-conductive patina causing intermittent open
circuits.  I want to solder all the crimped bits together but need to remove
the oxide first.  Thus the question.

Yes, the topic car is OT but the issue of corroded electrical connections
plagues us all.  Ergo, I query the collective wizardry of the forum.

Thanks and best regards,

-rick
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From: Rick Lindsay <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 13:08:47 -0700 (PDT)

Thanks everyone.

I've since cleaned the board, soldered all the connections, and carefully restaked the rivets.

I cleaned it with a wire brush, scraped with an Exacto knife and coated each connection with solder flux before soldering.  I then cleaned the flux away with braked cleaner.

One correction.  The substrate is actually 2mm thick phenolic, not glass fiber.

The board is back in now and working perfectly.  Thanks again for the sage advice.

-rick

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