A sticky solution?

Perhaps one of your readers can answer this. I recently saw before and after photos of an OK Supreme restoration. The owner was a horse breeder and owner. The bike was badly surface rusted but the quality of the cleaned sheet metal was superb. I asked him whether he chemically cleaned or blasted the panels. He told me that he soaked them in a barrel of molasses for a few weeks. I expressed my disbelief and he told me that molasses is well known as a rust remover and widely used by old time farmers to restore rusted farm equipment and horse tackle. Can this be true or am I being made sport of? If it is true, what is the reason for this property? Phil Smith Cairns, Qld. Email: pwesmtih@gmail.com