Restoring a Vintage Outdoor Steel T-post Clothesline to its Former Glory and beyond!

One of the first things I fell in love with when we bought our house was the outdoor vintage clothesline in the backyard! A year later now here I am restoring it so that I can use it. I am upgrading the clothesline to be a pulley system.

NOTE: I have previously installed a Heavy Duty strata clothesline kit at our other house but I like the materials of this project better than the ones that came in the kit.

I have used this in the past and it was easy to use if you aren’t using a T-post and only want one clothesline but its not cost effective.

First I measured the distance between the two T-post clotheslines so that I could order my PVC coated steel clothesline. Be careful because not all PVC coated steel lines are equal in quality especially when it comes to outdoor clotheslines. You want a quality clotheslines that is going to hold up against the weight of the heavy laundry and the wind pull.

 

Then I gathered all of the supplies;

 

  • 2 four (4) inch pulleys (purchased through amazon)
  • 2 heavy duty carbines (hardware store)
  • A fence tightener (to act as a line tightener, purchased on amazon)
  • 100ft Strata gold 1000lbs break limit steel PVC coated clothesline (Ebay)
  • A package of loop end cable clasp (local hardware store)
  • Clothesline spreaders (local hardware store) I bought three for a 50ft run
  • Clothespins (local hardware store)

Then outside to the T-post clothesline we went and then we stopped because the existing fastening hardware was so rusted that we couldn’t tighten the nuts down. So began a side project of removing the rust from the existing hardware

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Remove Rust with Apple Cider Vinegar**

Supplies;

  • Rusty hardware (eyelet anchors and nuts)
  • Two plastic bins
  • Apple cider vinegar
  • Mini brass utility brush
  • Blue shop rags (easily found at local hardware/auto parts stores)
  • 3-IN-1 oil
  • Distilled water
  • Heavy duty rubber gloves

  1. First step was to take the rusty parts and soak them over night in the apple cider vinegar. I filled the tub just above the hardware and set it and forget it! 

    Apple Cider Vinegar will appear amber in color
  2. The next morning I checked on things and sadly all of the rust had not fallen off.
    The rust didn’t fall off after an overnight soak

    You can see some of the rust particles in the water and on the bottom of the tub. I will not use this tub again for rust removal as it discolors the rubber.
  3. Note that I did watch videos and read that if you leave your hardware/tools in the apple cider vinegar for a few days then all of the rust will eventually fall off. I’m not that patient so I used my brass mini brush to easily brush away the remaining rust.
  4. I dipped the hardware into distilled water to neutralize any effects from the apple cider vinegar.
    double bucket cleaning with apple cider vinegar and distilled water

    The end results after brushing away the rust this is what remained
  5. Dried each part before applying the 3-IN-1 oil
  6. Reattach eyelet screws into T-post

 Pulley clothesline Install

Begin with assembling the 4” pulleys and attach the carbines to the pulleys

Prepare your post clamp and line tightener by attaching them together

Attach the pulleys with the carbines to the eye hook on the T-post

****This part did require two people to hold the line tight and stop it from falling out of the pulleys****

Run your clotheslines between each pulley before cutting it.

attaching the line tightener

Make sure that your line tightener ends up on the bottom of the pulley system!

1st loosen the bolts on the wire claps before sliding them onto the clothesline
2. Run the clothesline through the end of the tightener
3. run the loose tail end of the clothesline back through the wire claps before tightening up the bolts.

 

Run your other end of the clotheslines through the hole inside the tightener

Tighten down your line tightener  by using crescent wrench on the side bolt and ratchet it down until your line is tight.

Attach your clothesline spreaders

Now you are ready to hang clothes

I am very happy with the end result and will be ordering more supplies to run more lines.

 

 ** Apple cider vinegar vs Citric Acid for Rust Removal

I recently used citric acid to remove rust from my wood plane and this time I wanted to try apple cider vinegar. The disadvantage to using the apple cider vinegar was that I had to let it sit overnight vs the Citric acid which I could just let sit a few hours and then start cleaning that same day. If you have a lot of small nuts and bolts, or tool bits then I would soak them for a few days in the apple cider vinegar to remove the rust but if you have larger items to remove rust from then I would use the citric acid method for removing rust.

 

If I ever figure out how to make a rust removal paste then I will consider removing the rust from the T-posts themselves and applying a auto paint (the same used when refinishing the japing on a wood plane) for restoration.