cleaning an old bathtub

[smeisnotapirate]

We are remodeling our house, and we have an old porcelain bathtub that we cannot afford to replace at this time. It has rust stains and dirt stains and paint stains all over it, and looks disgusting. I've scrubbed and scrubbed it, but no more is coming out. It's clean, it just looks disgusting. Every dirt spot that is left on becomes a stain.

Any tips on how to get it white again??

[LVale]

I know it is not eco-friendly, but have you tried CLR, a brand of lime away, or just bleach?

[Jackies Ladybug]

goof off, but test it in a tiny spot first to make sure it wont eat through the porcelain. and use really good ventilation, that stuff will really get to you fast if you dont.
but remember its GOOF OFF, not its other weaker and wont do a darn thing cousin GOO GONE.
or you can go with straight up paint thinner. really, when it comes to restoring porcelain you usually have to use some pretty toxic stuff.
but you most likely wont ever have to do it again! (does that make it any better?)

[Tizzy]

I have no idea if it's at all green, but I've heard wonderful things about Bar keeper's best friend for cleaning tubs.

I thought ours was hopeless but somehow after the first year and a half of me scrubbing it 2x/week it came up shiny and clean. I will admit that I did use comet on it a time or two...

[artemis33]

Borax first will clean any grime and make it shine (use a thick barely damp paste).

Then Barkeeper's friend will remove stains - gets rust stains out of my porcelain sink all the time (from sitting cast iron pans in there).

[hibana]

Once you're done, you might try using a car headlight polishing kit to protect the worn parts of the porcelain from future stains.