How to get the LOOK of cad plating
 

I have some engine parts that I would like to bring back to life, looks wise.

Anyone do a cad plating that was easiy on the budget? If not what color looks good?

Cheers

Eastwood Restoration Supplies has a multi-step paint that reproduces the look of cadium plating. Web address is www.eastwoodco.com

A yellow zinc coating is similar. Call around your area and find a chrome or plating shop. ASk them if they can do Cad or yellow zinc. they may point you in the right direction.

plating is usually done by the pound. It is also usually a batch process where many things can be plated at once. Much easier to drop them off rather than painting. Also the paint does not hold up on fasteners.

Photocopy or photo all your pieces. Platers often lose them.

Also, they will have a min. charge, so if you have 1/2 lb. of nuts and bolts expect to be paying a lot per lb.

Many platers do not want to see a small time customer at all....

I have a call into a plater now. Lets hope he calls back.

One guy freaked out when I said cad plating....Blah blah blah EPA blah EPA.

There is a company called Caswell that sells plating kits. one of them is called copy cad which does zinc plating and you also need to buy the yellow chromate crystals to give the plating the yellow cad color. I purchased the small kit and will eventually get around to using it.

Caswell

I've done CAD plating on my rear spring plates - whole lot for ~$50. Take a look. These photos are in the spring and it has held up very well.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1102704960.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1102704989.jpg

I had all my outer hardware and brackets for my 3.5L engine build cadmium plated Type 2 Class 2 Gold for a $70 lot charge. I second doing an inventory count before releasing the parts to the plater, I didn't have anything missing from my personal motor but have had misc. pieces missing from other projects. The last thing you want to have happen is get held up on an engine build over a nut, bolt or bracket that is missing.

Zinc plating is also an alternative, this can usually be done in gold, black and silver.

Ralph

Yes, cadmium is extremely toxic and they use a lot of other nasties as well. There are fewer places that do it now because of the cost of paying to do a clean job. My view is that the business and its customers should absorb the cost, not the public thru health problems, children with brain damage and so forth. So, pony up to the bar and pay the cost. Or get Zn chromate.

Hmmm. I added a post awhile ago and it disappeared.

The gist was this. There's a process called tin-zinc plating that's similar to cadmium plating but is supposed to be 2X better in the corrosion area - yellow as well and safer too. As Randy pointed, out Cad is not too friendly to Mother earth.

Sherwood

Even 'cadnium yellow" oil and acrylic paints are that in name only.
Buisnesses that plate seem to have been grandfathered in before the laws took effect. Hotrodders could have leads but my internet searches haven't turned up many.

I used the Eastwood stuff, not very good in my opinion. Save yourself the bother and send out your items to a shop that does yellow cad, it's the right look and cost is not bad at all.

I'm preparing to do all the hardware in the engine compartment over the winter and maybe other items as I go.

Mike

When I had everything apart, there was a local plating shop that still did cadmium plating (grandfathered in I suppose), so that's the direction I went. As an example, in the following pic, the rotors would not fit in his 'cad tumbler', so they are 'yellow zinc chromate'...not much difference in appearance imo:http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1102776317.jpg

How well does it hold up against oxidation
 

Once the parts are cad plated how long do they retain the look?

Gordo

If you don't mind shipping out of the area check with Harold at Ideal Chrome Plating in AZ, phone 520 882 9090. He does a number of plating types and his work is excellent and extremely reasonable. He's a little slow some times depending on his workload. He just did two very corroded headlight reflectors out of my H4's for $90.00 and they came back perfect. I'll post pics in separate thread.

There are definitely still shops in most cities that do Cad, if they're grandfathered in. The ones that are still around probably can't afford to CLOSE DOWN. The soil studies and ground cleanup would kill them if they did.

Here's one place that does cad plating (also zinc and tin-zinc).

http://www.burbankplating.com/company.htm

Sherwood

"grandfathered" .. it is not illegal, it just requires extra work to do it safely. As with all economic activity, a larger business can more easily absorb such things. That's why there are fewer shops.

BTW, re can't afford to close down. It's true that someone buying the land will have it inspected; however, continuing to pollute is really unwise. Someone will eventually find out about it, and either sue the business or complain to a regulatory agency.

Can't afford to close down does no mean illegal. I know of a manufacturer in S. Calif. that did it all by the book, but said that if they ever shut down and tried to sell the land, the fact that they had been plating was going to put up all kinds of red flags, and be a really tough endeavor. That does not necessarily mean they were/are polluting.

my local auto parts store had "cad look spray paint" The result was very marginal as far as matching color, most guys here would not accept it and neither would I if I was doing a bunch of parts. But it was cheap and quick for this situation...