Hardware Plating Prep by a Noob
 

AND time-consuming missteps.

1. Take everything off the engine. Bag and label things as you go.
2. Clean everything. This proved to be very time-consuming because I, as have many others in this forum, was putting groups of parts through a multi-step cleaning process.

This meant putting one small group in the ultra-sonic cleaner or using multiple labeled containers to keep all of the groups separated. In the tumbler, the groups had to be put in one at a time to keep them together unless they were vastly different. This is insanely time-consuming. And about halfway through I came up with a streamlined “ish” solution.

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Because I have never rebuilt one of these engines and I knew all of my hardware was going to have to go to the plater in one large batch (I am just doing everything in yellow zinc), I thought I would document each group so when it came back, I could then reorganize it and easily be able to identify anything missing.

Once I laid out a few groups I realized that I could have done this on the front end and cleaned and tumbled everything together after the groups were documented via a picture. This allowed me to put 50 items in a batch rather than 10 or 12. Huge time saver!

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I still have a bit to go and will be adding to these images but below is a link to what I have so far. Once back from the plater I can lay them all out and easily put a list together for belmetric and pelican to order lost and one-time use items (Aluminum/Copper/Wave washers) as needed. I didn’t document all of the nylon nuts because I was just throwing them out as I dissembled. I know where most of those go (valve covers, sump..) but I will need to identify those locations once everything is in hand.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/166NN3khUrESMcciHZSgEjEtuxTEy0NRz

For someone who has done this several times, this is probably overkill but for those like me it provides some reassurance.

------------- Cleaning Process -------------

I will also mention my cleaning process which isn’t that involved.
Someone on the forum from Wisconsin took some stuff to a batch plater and did very little prep work (degrease/de-rust/oil). His stuff looked pretty good. I’m basically following his lead with a few extra steps.

I’m using a 5-gallon ultrasonic cleaner in a few different ways. It was like $150 and is large enough to fit cam housing into.

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I give everything a 30-minute-high heat ultrasonic bath with dawn dishwashing soap (1 cup).

Next, I give it a hot ultrasonic bath using a large glass container in mineral spirits for another 30 minutes.

Then I clean them up with some parts cleaner and throw them in a $60 Harbor Freight tumbler with some Resin Abrasive (and a splash of evaporust) for about 3 hours.

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After all of that, they get cleaned again with parts cleaner and go into a bath or evaporust for an hour. That gets them rust-free and removes the old plating.

Then more parts cleaner and I thread chase everything that has threads.

Finally, I coat everything with some WD40 and bag them until they go in for batch plating (cost $30 a batch + $30 shipping).

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. The machines are doing everything. My only concern is I’m not sandblasting or putting anything on a wire wheel which is pretty normal prep.. but we will see how this goes.

Waiting to see the results.
Nice write up by the way.

Just a note, things like those copper washers...you'll be replacing those right? they're not supposed to be reused or plated.
how is the tumbler working?
I sent my stuff to Tru6 in MA, Shaun posts here, the plating came out superb. I didn't clean anything at all, figuring he's a control kind of guy and wants them cleaned his way. Pricing was cheaper than I could have done it for

Yep. Those Aluminum and copper aren't going out. This wasn't too bad in terms of work once I worked out the workflow. The cost of the equipment is really negligible as I will be using it to clean up a lot of parts on the engine as I move forward. And again, the cost of the plating is $30 total + $30 for shipping. $60 total is a pretty good deal IF the results are solid.

I will post the results once things get back to me.

I bought a large HF tumbler but went back to a wire wheel mounted on a bench grinder. For most hardware, one pass on the wire wheel is all it needs. I also send out for batch plating.

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How did those springs turn out? Did they stretch them while plating?

Don’t use chemicals/ cleaners on parts and send them out to be plated. I did some parts for a guy and he used some sort of washing soda in a dishwasher to clean them. After bead-blasting and degreasing the parts still contaminated my chemistry, had to throw out $300 of plating solution.
Parts have to bead blasted and degreased anyway so your wasting your time.

Parts look great, who do you use for plating?

The springs all work normally. Only some pot metal parts didn't survive the plating.

Just a plating company that does big batches. A friend did mine on the side. It's all about the prep and this load of parts did take quite a bit of time. Every nut, bolt and piece was either blasted or wire wheeled or both.

There is real value to using a place like True6. Shawn does an inventory of before and after. If any of my parts are lost from my guy, it's oh well. Think about how hard your parts are to replace before you send them out. I also just wanted clean and shiny so my prep was fine for me.

Prep is the key to a nice finish. The plater I had used in the past is no longer in business. I found a place in Baltimore that seems to do nice work, so I am going to give them a try.

Who is True6?

I bag and label all fasteners. I usually just take bolts out of each bag and take a picture of the bolts with the bag. When they come back I get the kids to help sort on the kitchen table. Make it a game!

Shawn - True6 is a long time pelican member who does this service professionally. Outstanding work.

I messed up big time on a big batch. I sent 3.2 fuel rails to be plated. They must have held a bunch of acid because when I got the parts back, everything was corroded and damaged. It all had to be redone. That was all on me. I'll be sending those difficult parts to shawn for tlc.

I will attest that Shawn - Tru6 does a great job at a very reasonable price. Being I am in California and Shawn is in the North East, even the cost of shipping was worth it.

We clean and tumble our hardware and small parts. Multiple different tumbling media to arrive at a fine polish. Then sent off for CAD plating. Parts look like new, with proper color. Different from yellow zinc plating...

Cheers

He also does other finishes, plating is just one aspect. He KNOWS Cerakoting and Cerakoting (H series) is NOT a walk in the park for even an experienced painter. Also, Powder coating, anodizing, polishing stainless, and other restoration of parts. IT's archival quality work. He's also super helpful.

Does he have a website?

tru-6.com

I don't think the batch processing places bead blast anything. I think they deal with mostly production pieces that are ready to plate. I figure these extra steps would help but we will see. I will send a couple of peices in with no prep to see the difference.

CAD plating is a tougher finish and how the original hardware was plated, correct? Is there a huge price difference?

My understanding is that Cad plating has been all but phased out due to to environmental concerns.
That said if anyone knows of a place in the Seattle area that’s still doing it, I’m interested.

Cad plating is available all over the northeast and is much better than zinc. It's even available in batch processing. It is about twice the price though.

Thickness for thickness, which is more corrosion resistant depends on the exact atmosphere -- cadmium is generally better for salty environments, and zinc is generally better for industrial environments. But a thicker layer of a zinc alloy will provide better corrosion resistance than cadmium in every case, and every effort should be made to use zinc or a zinc alloy and to get cadmium out of the environment. Good luck.

What zinc thickness specification do you think will work best for our cars?

Typically, and per spec, zinc electroplating would be 5, 8, 13, or 25 microns thick based on whether the service condition was mild, moderate, severe, or very severe.

Thank you Mark, and everyone else, I appreciate the kind words. And I love doing fuel rails, 928 shown here. A lot is in the prep but it's also your relationship with the plater. I give local restaurant gift cards to the guy that does my plating all the time because he always goes the extra distance for me.

For yellow plating, I only do yellow cadmium. Clear is a mix of a custom zing chemistry or cadmium

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Hmmmm I see some of my parts in those pics! Absolutely thats my housing strap/ Looks better in person.

Shaun gets top marks for communication, honesty and packaging, as well as quality.
I think plating is kinda easy for him. Give him some Cerakote stuff. Challenge him ;)

Try Electrofinishing in Kent.

Beautiful plating Shaun.

Sean that looks like yellow chromate ( sodium dichromate) not yellow cadmium.

There are definitely a few items I don't trust for batch plating and will send to Shaun @ Tru6 for period-correct cadmium plating.

any suggestions for a place to Cad Plate in NO CA?

Lots of good info

ThxSmileWavy

Shaun @Tru 6 did all my plating work. His work and attention to detail is outstanding. I wouldn’t use anyone else to do plating and restoration work. My spring plates and axles should arrive in the next few days from Shaun.
I’ll post some more pictures of his work :-)



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+1ish(?)...I thought that cad was basically nonexistent now due to environmental concerns. I was thinking that yellow/gold with the rainbow effect like an oil slick is now just zinc chromate.

I would love to be wrong, as I understand cad is more durable and I need some plating done.

Shaun, can you confirm that it's true cad with the gold/rainbow look?

Sure, both zinc and cadmium plating use a chromate conversion coating over the zinc and cadmium for a little extra protection. Colors include clear (sometimes tinted blue though I have access to old school clear chromate), yellow (gold), black and olive.

So yes, the plater I use has proper cadmium plating with a chromate layer on top. If I have to strip a cadmium plated piece, most times because I wasn't happy with the color or there was a flaw in the plating, it will sit in the bath for sometimes 20 minutes before all of the cadmium has been stripped. Zinc is always 2-3 minutes from start to finish.

Fun fact, everyone thinks 911 door handles were black anodized; anodizing typically applies to aluminum, magnesium, titanium, etc. I just got a call today to reanodize door handles actually. In fact door handles are die cast zinc and were originally plated with black zinc chromate. If you look at the back of a door handle in the recess, you can see the chromate rainbow effect which is part of the spec. For yellow, some times it's more green, or rose, and sometimes it's beautiful RGB tones across gold.

Both zinc and cadmium are silver or whitish silver in color. The clear chromate for cadmium has a different chemistry than for zinc so you can get some beautiful silvers with the right pre-plating processing.

356
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Ferrari 275 GTS brakes and such


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I never really thought of plating like this as an art, but after looking at those pics, it sure feels like Shaun is an artist....

Received some more restoration work from Shaun, that I assembled last night.
Excellent results! Great work!

Just realized that I put a washer on the driver side eccentric toe bolt. Need to address it today.


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wow does that look amazing!!! So nice.
Tim