Your best bet is probably to scour it and sand all the rust and then repaint it with enamel paint. Read up on what to put on areas that are rusty to stop it from spreading, before you paint, if there are any. It's probably a cast iron sink, so you can sand it w/o a problem.

I rehapped a old one by scrubbing it really well with bonami and a green pot scrubing pad. Comet didn,t work nearly as well on it. I think you will be really pleased at how well it cleans up . The old paint should more or less peel off.

You can also try Dawn dish soap and a Magic Eraser. That is one cute sink!
Diane

If you have or can rent a power washer I'd try that first. Then paint remover for the paint that remains followed by a fine sanding job. At that point you will know if you want to paint it.

This is going to sound strange, but it will work pretty well--except on paint, of course. Many years ago, I had an apartment in Moscow. As it was being rehabbed, the workers laying the tile floor were using the bathtub (old, by the way) to mix mortar, to clean tools. It was just a disaster. I scrubbed with cleanser, not much helped. One day, by accident an open bottle of Alberto VO5 shampoo fell into the tub. The next morning, after it lay there on dry enamel overnight, the tub was brilliantly white where it had lain. I used the trick again--put shampoo thickly on a dry tub and left it there. This may help you--and it will only cost you a couple of bucks!

Hi,

I'm a big fan of vintage plumbing fixtures, and in our beach house I repurposed one vintage tub and sink, and bought 5 vintage sinks and a vintage tub.

My experience has often been, if it is surface and easy to remove, people usually remove it before they sell it. I have found it quite hard to remove paint and stains on these items, without scratching the surface. Be very careful that you only use soft scrub or the like.

I know a lot of places will re-porcelainize them (is that a word) but I do not want my plumbing fixtures to look brand new.

Kohler makes a product specifically for cleaning old sinks, which you can put on and leave overnight. My cleaning person recently found it for me, so I have yet to see how it works, but, FWIW you can find it at HomeDepot and on Amazon.

Green scrubby, any cleanser, and lots of elbow grease. Thank sink will come out good as new :)

If letting it soak 24 to 48 under a layer of shampoo or similar shows any promise then a mechanic's hand soap like 'fast orange' or another like it with pumice in it might be better yet.

This one was 1 of a lot of 9 in a building in Brroklyn Heights. I will not re-glaze it. We re-glazed our cast iron tub and it was done by a professional. Seven years later it is peeling off in sheets.

Thanks for the tips, I will try the shampoo first since I have some.

Vedazu --- LOL, makes me worry about using it on one's hair!

And I agree mtn. Actually I read something about V05 somewhere on the Internet and cancer causing chemicals, that's why it's sitting in the cabinet. DH bought some and I never used it.

Well, I use it a lot--still here to tell the tale at my old age!

If you do use a cleanser of any type with bleach in it. Bleach will cause further rust. It loves to damage metals. Since we do not know (unmarked) what is in the Mr. Clean products, I'd wait on using the scrubbers. Have heard more than once about shampoo working when marketed cleaning products claim far more for removing problems.

Hope you find something that works, love the sink.

Mr Clean magic erasers don't have bleach in them. Some examples do seem to have detergent built in.
I would attack the paint spatters with a single-edge razor blade, then any remaining spots with lacquer thinner.
Barkeeper's Friend is very effective on rust stains, because it has some oxalic acid in its recipe, other than that the abrasive is mild like Bon Ami.
A 1910 house that I have worked on had two of those sinks, each in one of the housekeeping/janitor closets. Imagine a house with 2 plumbed janitor closets; they had a full staff, like Downton Abbey!

I have had great luck removing rust stains on my cast iron tub, caused be cleaning person using tilex with bleach, with plain old peroxide i soaked rags with it and left them on the stains til they dissappear. I thinkoxiclean might do the same thing. Green scrubbies can cause grey etchings. Go gentle or risk greater damage.

What I used was peroxide that you use to bleach hair. Use the strongest kind and leave it on overnight. Worked like a charm when nothing else would. The lady at the beauty supply store told me people also use it to remove pet urine stains from hardwood floors.