give me some plating options.
 

O.k., there's cad plating and yellow zinc amongst others. Some say cad plating is the more lasting of the two. Also, hydrogen embrittlement must be addressed.

Let's say I'm having blasphemous thoughts and am not going to use any cad or yellow zinc plated parts. What about black anodizing? How does the cost stack up? Considerations? Material compatibility?

won't last

I thought you could only anodize aluminium? http://www.anodizing.org/faqs.html So that's not really an option for the steel bits that are normally plated.

Between cad and yellow zinc, I guess I'd go for cad just to be "authentic" if it was available and affordable. Here in the SF Bay Area it is neither, but yellow zinc looks nice.

My suspension bits still look like new over 1 year later.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125225&highlight=yellow +zinc

Sherwood has a link to this worthwhile read on his pages

Finishes

I don't see Parkerizing on there - at least by name. I think that is what most people are thinking of when talking about black anodizing on steel.

Thanks. Every time I read about hydrogen embrittlement I shudder. I think there's a lot of people out there getting their stuff plated that are sitting on a catastrophic failure (especially in suspension components).

That is a disturbing thought. (Embrittlement.)

Have there been any reports of failure that were due to embrittlement?

Yes. The place where I get my plating done told a horror story about a 'Vette guy. He turned down the baking service despite the warnings of the plater. They do his parts and he goes home and builds his engine and bolts up his heads. He comes down the next morning and his heads are on the floor - every one of the head bolts broke overnight. Of course he calls the plater to whine, and they say "remember that baking we told you to get..."