I'm building a bed for my truck and ended up with some hot rolled sheet instead of the preferred cold rolled. Last time I used some I had to sandblast the coating off of it. This time I used white vinegar and it turned out pretty good.
I poured plenty on it and spread around good with a brush. This is what it looked like the next morning.



I wire brushed the majority of this off. I then saturated again and waited about a half hour and scrubbed with a scotchbrite pad.

 

That looks pretty good. I'd make sure that you get all of the acids neutralized before you do any paint processes. A soda wash would kill the vinegar....you could probably also do that with soap and water. I only say that because a lot of guys with bare metal use some kind of self etching primer, or a direct to metal (DTM) primer.

What are your plans for the bed? Are you patching up a stock bed or starting from scratch?

Dan

 

I hear you on the wash. I'm actually going to do both baking soda and soap and water. I've also heard about painting nightmares from acid contamination.

I'm building the bed from scratch.

 

You've stripped it clean as can be, you need to get some paint on it ASAP! Probably don't need an etching primer.