Plating and blacking

[Keith Clements]

Has anyone any comments on doing it at home?

Having looked at the cost of new nuts, bolts and washers and at the difficulty of obtaining some suitable sizes, we discussed getting a plating and/or blacking kit.

Blacking is the cheapest and easiest but offers limited corrosion resistance, however it does look more period.

BZP (bright zinc plating) gives better corrosion resistance and is just about acceptable if using the clear brightener and not the yellow passivator.

The replica chrome is nickel plating with additives to give the chrome look and has very good corrosion resistance. It can also be used on the fasteners that should be chromed (although the eagle eyed might notice a colour change with real chrome). Bumpers could be chromed provided a big enough tank is found.

I think I could convert the TIG/MIG to act as a really good power supply! A battery charger would be good enough for most parts.

The copper build up kit might be used for recovering MAZAK or other heavily pitted items. We might also look at recovering king pins and the like with the nickel plating system.


http://www.classic-plating.co.uk/index_ ... age497.htm

http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/Hints-and-Tips.php

http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/Replica ... ng-Kit.php

and suggest getting the ULTIMATE REPLICA CHROME PLATING KIT

and /or
http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/Zinc-Ni ... ng-Kit.php

THE ULTIMATE SUPER BRIGHT ZINC/NICKEL PLATING KIT

or possibly just the chemicals as some are common to the chrome kit

[Keith Clements]

A bit more research has come up with a number of options for refurbishing the hundreds of small steel parts that make up a car, many of which are rusted.
Here are some pros and cons.

Getting rid of the rust.
1. Wire brushing - may scratch the surface, time consuming
2. Soda or plastic chip blasting- good surface finish but may not shift the rust
3. Grit blasting - aggresive, unless using very fine media, but cleans to bare metal.
4. Mollases - 2 or 3 weeks to convert, low labour except in brushing off scum and washing and drying
5. Washing soda (sodium carbonate) electrolysis- few hours but each part has to be electrically connected as cathode.

Protecting the surface.
1. Phosphoric acid spray or brush.- converts any remaining rust but does not permanently protect.
2. Painting - not suitable for mechanical components with threads
3. Blacking - limited corrosion resistance
4- Electro-plating- zinc, nickel or chrome . There is clear communication here on the various types of zinc plating. Perhaps barrel acid zinc plating is the answer but may not be good for threaded components due to consistency of thickness of plating.
5. Chromate passivation of zinc plating in black, yellow, blue or clear- black would be my prefered process using ENTHONE’s PERMA PASS 7030. http://www.zink-nickel-kft.com/black-zinc-plating.html but how you get hold of some is another question! The yellow is more common but does not suit a Jowett. Need to check out if the black in the kits is this 'environmentally friendly' Enthone.
6. Black zinc nickel plating seems to be the best process as it does not embrittel high tensile components which most fastenings are!

[Jack]

Also worth considering is the Coca Cola method - effectively using acid to remove the rust, a day for mild rusty bits, two days for seriously rusty bits, and Coke (when on offer in Tesco) is relatively cheap and sold in small quantities, safe to put in any type of container.

Worth a google, I know a few people who have used this for small numbers of nuts and bolts quite successfully, and it has certainly bailed me out a couple of times on boats in the middle of nowhere when something needs stripping down and cleaning up overnight.

Jack.

[Keith Clements]

Very dangerous... with your craving for the stuff you will drink the dregs!