[304065]

Jon,

I am afraid of the chemicals used in the plating process, so I will send everything out. Right now I am in the process of:

1) Identifying what SHOULD be on the engine. Basically, before anything gets sent out, I am preparing a list of every single part that goes in the engine. As you can imagine, it's a big task, but I don't want to start and then have to stop. Along with this goes the specifications of everything.

The trouble I am having is that my original factory parts manual was updated in November, 1967. This means that rather than specifing a standard hex nut, cad-plated, with a steel double wave washer with a black oxide coating, which is what is actually ON the engine, so I know it's original, the parts manual calls out a nylon lock nut and an aluminum washer, which was what was used on the Magnesium cases.

So I'm in the strange position of simultaneously looking for the original DIN spec, and not knowing what the original DIN spec is, because the DIN specs changed many, many times over a 30 year period, and in any event, are now ISO specifications, with DIN still running in parallel.

That's a long-winded way of saying that I'm going to have to look carefully at what I've got and backsolve into what it should be, forget the specifications. But the parts count will be helpful.

Then. . .

2) Clean, degrease and prep everything myself. One of the problems reported with doing old hardware is that the bulk preparation process doesn't handle details very well, e.g., the lettering isn't cleaned out, etc. I'm working on sourcing some extra hardware to account for wear and missing pieces, so once that's done, I'm going to soak everything in B-12, clean it with a nylon brush, throw it in my ultrasonic cleaner and then polish everything in a vibratory tumbler with walnut shell media BEFORE sending it out.

I'm going to shoot for the real deal cad plating, we'll see how much it costs. Probably going to have to use plain steel wave washers, and I'll have them done in black zinc, which looks like oxide, but is way more corrosion resistant.

The studs in the case are an interesting problem. If this were a Manhattan trophy engine I would remove them all (big job) and have everything black oxide coated. I don't want to fool around with removing all the studs, however, so I'm going to use some tool blackener to give the ends the correct finish. This should be good enough and offer some corrosion resistance without harming anything.

Speaking of the case, it's on the way back from Ollie's, it's been tumble-polished. I am seriously thinking of treating it with Zoop Seal to prevent oxidation, it's going to be that nice.

Ideally, the plater would be local, because I also have to have the door handles, window frames, window trim, mirror bracket, horn grills, headlight rings, rear window latches and rear bumperettes re-chromed. That is going to be mega bucks but I want it done RIGHT.

Another one of my long-winded answers. . .