Looking for custom plating vendor

[Henrik]

I need to have some brackets (motor mounts, tranny mounts etc) plated. I am looking to have the same plating/look as the brackets originally came with.
1) Is this plating called yellow zinc plating?
2) Can someone refer me to a customer plating vendor anywhere in the US? I have looked around in the Dallas area but have not found one that does custom jobs.

Thanks,

[DMCMW Dave]

I need to have some brackets (motor mounts, tranny mounts etc) plated. I am looking to have the same plating/look as the brackets originally came with.
1) Is this plating called yellow zinc plating?
2) Can someone refer me to a customer plating vendor anywhere in the US? I have looked around in the Dallas area but have not found one that does custom jobs.

Thanks,

Yes, it is called yellow zinc. Zinc is normally silver color (called "clear zinc" in the industry). The yellow is a second process that honestly isn't particularly durable, it is only for appearance to looks somewhat like cadmium plating, which is really impossible to get now (cadmium is a very hazardous heavy metal). If you don't care about the yellow appearance go with the "clear".

We have a plater nearby, I've had people mail stuff in, we run it and ship it back. Might take a week or two. It's not much of a moneymaker but I realize that it's a pretty scarce resource.

Here are some examples. Yes - I know that some of the parts are not done in the authentic color. It's your option, it just is more of a pain to separate them out. Hard to quote, it is based on whatever it they decide to charge me at the time. Typically about $125-150 for a 5 gallon bucket full of stuff if it's relatively clean and doesn't need much handling. Send in a bunch of rusty stuff still all assembled and its more, especially if I need to take things apart or separate colors, and the plater has to do more prep etc. Also if you are in a hurry I'll run yours alone and that is extra.


29804298012980229803

There really has to be someone it Texas who does this, it is a very common manufacturing process.

[Henrik]

Yes, it is called yellow zinc. Zinc is normally silver color (called "clear zinc" in the industry). The yellow is a second process that honestly isn't particularly durable, it is only for appearance to looks somewhat like cadmium plating, which is really impossible to get now (cadmium is a very hazardous heavy metal). If you don't care about the yellow appearance go with the "clear".

We have a plater nearby, I've had people mail stuff in, we run it and ship it back. Might take a week or two. It's not much of a moneymaker but I realize that it's a pretty scarce resource.

Here are some examples. Yes - I know that some of the parts are not done in the authentic color. It's your option, it just is more of a pain to separate them out. Hard to quote, it is based on whatever it they decide to charge me at the time. Typically about $125-150 for a 5 gallon bucket full of stuff if it's relatively clean and doesn't need much handling. Send in a bunch of rusty stuff still all assembled and its more, especially if I need to take things apart or separate colors, and the plater has to do more prep etc. Also if you are in a hurry I'll run yours alone and that is extra.


29804298012980229803

There really has to be someone it Texas who does this, it is a very common manufacturing process.

Dave to the rescue again! I am attaching a pic of the typical little bracketry I am talking about. All in all there will be a dozen of these parts. I don't care so much about the yellow vs clear appearance. The parts are sand blasted i.e. free of rust, no disassembly required. Gimme a week or so and I will get back with you when I know exactly what I need to send you.

You know, about finding a plating shop in Texas.... You would think Google is your friend here but ALL the companies I have contacted around Dallas are only interested in high production quantities and should I be so lucky to find a little guy here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that can take this on, chances are that he's at least an hour's drive away. I love it here in Frisco where I live, but urban sprawl is in full swing which means that no structure or establishment is more than a week old so forget finding a little mom and pop shop like a custom plating company. So..... I came to the conclusion that I am better off shipping my parts to whatever shop any of my dear dmctalk friends recommend. So again, Dave, thanks for stepping in to help.

I'll PM you when I'm ready to ship.
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[Mark D]

Yes, it is called yellow zinc. Zinc is normally silver color (called "clear zinc" in the industry). The yellow is a second process that honestly isn't particularly durable, it is only for appearance to looks somewhat like cadmium plating, which is really impossible to get now (cadmium is a very hazardous heavy metal). If you don't care about the yellow appearance go with the "clear".

We have a plater nearby, I've had people mail stuff in, we run it and ship it back. Might take a week or two. It's not much of a moneymaker but I realize that it's a pretty scarce resource.

Here are some examples. Yes - I know that some of the parts are not done in the authentic color. It's your option, it just is more of a pain to separate them out. Hard to quote, it is based on whatever it they decide to charge me at the time. Typically about $125-150 for a 5 gallon bucket full of stuff if it's relatively clean and doesn't need much handling. Send in a bunch of rusty stuff still all assembled and its more, especially if I need to take things apart or separate colors, and the plater has to do more prep etc. Also if you are in a hurry I'll run yours alone and that is extra.


29804298012980229803

There really has to be someone it Texas who does this, it is a very common manufacturing process.

Hey I recognize some of those parts! :thumbup:

The first couple photos are parts that I sent in when I had my chassis torn apart about two years ago. As Dave mentioned some of them got plated in zinc that weren't plated from the factory (like the front caliper mounting brackets, hubs, etc) but that was exactly what I wanted and the corrosion resistance has been excellent so far. Heat can break down the yellow conversion coating but even after a few years and several thousand miles of use the exhaust mounting brackets still look brand new like they do in those photos. The calipers also look like the day I installed them (minus a bit of brake dust that can be brushed away.)

I couldn't be happier with the service DMCMW provided working with the plater to get everything right... I had enough stuff that they did a special run of just my parts and everything came back without a single nut or bolt missing. I was also able to send in a few more parts later on (steering rack brackets) and was charged a very reasonable cost since my parts were batched with another run of parts and I didn't have to pay any minimum lot charges.

I was prepared to pay much more than I did to get all of these parts looking like new again... The price DMCMW charged was very reasonable and if I have more parts in the future I'll definitely be giving Dave a call.

Here are a few more pictures of all the parts that I had plated... Dave was nice enough to sort out all the fasteners for clear zinc only so the additional (thicker) yellow conversion coating would not fill in the threads. He also welded up my broken angle drive support bracket before sending it out to the plater.

Thanks again Dave for providing this service to the DMC community :D


http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29835&d=1407269221
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=29834&d=1407269221

[Henrik]

I wanted to thank Dave and Julee for an outstanding job:

- The parts I sent to DMCMW for plating were in a varity of conditions but DMCMW made sure all parts were cleaned/sand-blasted first
- The parts I had asked to be yellow plated vs the parts I wanted clear zinc plated was 100% correct
- The plating quality was immaculate
- The turn-around time was f-a-s-t
- The parts were individually wrapped/boxed/bagged inside the box
- The cost was lower than anticipated

and to top it off: Dave's boss is a pleasure to talk to :)

Thanks again, Dave and Julee! Keep up the good work!!

Henrik
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[Mark D]

Glad to hear you had the same positive experience I did!

[Trevino08]

So I just got some engine parts powdercoated and I'm trying to decide if I want to get the screws zinc coated. How have they held up?

[Mark D]

The large parts and fasteners that I had re-plated in zinc are holding up really well. It's been about 10 years and I've put around 10k miles on.

I've driven it in the rain plenty of times including a few downpours, but my car mostly sits in a garage on top of a race-deck floor, so there's little to no moisture.

If I had to do it over today I'd probably still go with zinc. It's the most readily available type of coating for finding a place locally that still can do it, and you get a finish that is really close to what came from the factory.

At my job we also use Dacromet/Geomet and Magni coatings which typically have better salt spray ratings than zinc plating, but they are dip-spin coatings instead of electroplated so they are slightly thicker. The finish and color is also slightly different than zinc/cad plating. Magni 501 gold would be what I'd consider as an alternative. There aren't many vendors that actually do this type of coating though, and I'm not sure if they would do small batches of old fasteners.

What other options were you considering instead of zinc plating? Powder coating would be too thick for fasteners unless you were planning on masking all the threads, and that would kind of defeat the purpose of having them refinished.

[Trevino08]

Mark - thanks for the quick response! I am a novice to engines, especially coatings. I just didn't like the idea of putting old rusted/oily screws next to parts that you could literally eat off of right now. I am glad to hear that they are holding together well. I will likely see if I can purchase zinc coated bolts off the shelf. Glad to hear that yours are holding up well!

[Trevino08]

Mark - thanks for the quick response! I am a novice to engines, especially coatings. I just didn't like the idea of putting old rusted/oily screws next to parts that you could literally eat off of right now. I am glad to hear that they are holding together well. I will likely see if I can purchase zinc coated bolts off the shelf. Glad to hear that yours are holding up well!

[82DMC12]

I used DMCMW's plating service a few times and it's great. Last year I did a full suspension refurbishment and sent them all my large suspension bolts, brackets, calipers, etc and it all came back great. Another option for hardware is to simply replace it. You'll go broke and empty handed trying to buy the right stuff at Lowes but if you go to belmetric.com you can order onesy-twosy of damn near anything you need and the price is GREAT, everything is zip locked by size/type, and they have a variety of finishes for most items. I'm doing a frame-off right now and I'm replacing most nuts, bolts, washers, etc. This is probably easier and cheaper for anything smaller than M12 compared to sending it out for cleaning and plating. I also opted to upgrade most 8.8 hardware to hardened 10.9 for not much more. Highly recommend these guys. In fact I think I learned about them from Mark W haha. First picture is my last haul from DMCMW's plating and the second picture is my most recent box of hardware from belmetric.

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[mark w]

Andy, yeah, BelMetric is awesome for finding a good selection of metric hardware of all kinds.

You had the inside of the piston bore of the calipers plated? is that ok?

[82DMC12]

Andy, yeah, BelMetric is awesome for finding a good selection of metric hardware of all kinds.

You had the inside of the piston bore of the calipers plated? is that ok?Good observation, actually I forgot about that issue. I too didn't like that result and when I asked DMCMW about it they didn't really take a position but said I could remove the plating with 1000 grit. Which I did. I polished the bores by hand which was a bit annoying but it worked out. The plating in the bores was much rougher than the outside of the caliper so you would have thought whoever plated it would know better. This is a 3rd party in the Chicago area by the way.

No big deal to correct but good question.

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