WOW that looks great. I think you found a side gig!
WOW that looks great. I think you found a side gig!
Andy Lien
VIN 11596 Jan 1982 build - owned since Nov. 2000!
Total frame-off restoration completed 2021-2023
Photography and Backpacking is life.
Was Fargo, ND
Now Kansas City
I did the math for how many amps (6) I needed to send through the part during plating but the power source wouldn't go that high (even though I had it cranked way up). I think maybe it just isn't powerful enough for these larger cast metal pieces. I may end up just painting my calipers with gold engine paint.
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More parts showed up today. Just about done buying parts for a while I think. We'll besides nuts and bolts and stuff like that.
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The vapor honed parts turned out great. I've seen similar results on a few youtube restoration channels and I've always been impressed. If I could justify the investment I'd love to get a cabinet someday.
For zinc plating I've also experimented, but ultimately sent parts out to a plating vendor to do it instead. I went through DMCMW and they have a local vendor they use. You can send just one or two parts and they'll batch them with other orders, or if you've got enough parts to do a separate run they'll plate all your parts together. Not sure if DMCMW still offers that service or not.
I sent all my exhaust and chassis brackets, wheel hubs, brake calipers, etc. and they were plated in zinc with yellow dichromate conversion coating. The nuts, bolts, and other hardware were zinc plated with clear dichromate.
Yeah I think this came up earlier in one of Bill's threads haha. I also used MW's plating service, that was in 2021 and it turned out great. Not cheap after factoring in shipping etc but it was easy and worth it. I think I had my stuff back in three weeks. I sprayed the calipers with a clear engine enamel afterwards. Recommended +1.
Andy Lien
VIN 11596 Jan 1982 build - owned since Nov. 2000!
Total frame-off restoration completed 2021-2023
Photography and Backpacking is life.
Was Fargo, ND
Now Kansas City
Worked on the project yesterday for a good part of the day. The wife (Tammie) showed up with the dog and helped for a while. I showed her how to use the vapor blaster so she worked on vapor blasting parts while I jumped back and forth between dry blasting parts and trying to plate parts.
Steering rack mounts didn't come out well. I had some luck on some bolts that came not great but okay.
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Last edited by SupercoolBill; 11-27-2022 at 06:34 PM.
My low foaming Simple Green came in so I was able to use the parts cleaner finally. This thing is a GAME CHANGER!! I have done so many projects through the years that this would have been so good for. I did find though that even with the small amount of cleaner I added to the water it still got foam on the window so it was difficult,...sometimes impossible to see what you were doing after a few minutes of aggressive cleaning. I may end up installing a windshield wiper at some point. The key to this working well is the high pressure nozzle and the water at 125 degrees.
I installed a garden hose on the mezzanine and I am glad I did. It comes in really handy for cleaning the glass in the parts cleaner, rinsing parts before they come out of the vapor blaster, topping off water in chemical buckets, etc.
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As the day wore on I had more and more issues with plating. Weird patterns, metal flakes ending up on the surface of the stuff I plated, etc. So I pretty much decided to paint a lot of parts that was planning on plating before. I think having them painted will make them hold up better over time anyways. Here is a bunch of parts that I blasted that I am now going to paint.
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Today I just finished prepping parts for paint and painted them. Hand panted some steel parts that are connected to aluminum parts that were blasted.
I am having failed uploads when I pick medium quality for pics with lots of objects in them so I have to reduce some of them to low. Kind of a pain but you get the point (casein point the pic with all the parts hanging on the front of the forklift).
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I watched some you tube videos of people plating. These guys are spending a LOT of time on this. One video I watched the guy (someone that professional restores old motocross motorcycles) spent like an hour on one bolt. He first cleaned it the threads with a wire wheel, then he used two different scotchbrite wheels on it, then he vapor blasted it, then he degreased it, then he replaced his zinc plates with new ones because the ones he had were kind of gray looking and he claimed that his bolt would look that way if he didn't change them, then he dipped the bolt in acid, he rinsed it, he put it in the plating bath until it was plated, then he took it out and rinsed it, then he polished it, then he dipped it in acid then water, then he dipped it in the yellow chromate.
Basically every part needs to have a bunch of prep work or it comes out like crap. Everything in the plating set up needs to be perfect...or it comes out like crap. You need to have the amperage figured correct and have the item in the bath the correct amount of time or......you guessed it....it comes out like crap. Ugh.....
I swear this guys bolt is worth $100 now!!!
I don't know if I have the patience or the time for all that.
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