[dataway]

In my quest to salvage as many original parts as possible, in hopes of someday finishing a concours type restoration, I've starting doing some zinc re-plating of parts.

Below are some before after pics ...actually they are pics of identical parts from the same location, same car.

I fudged up a plating solution based on various recipes I've seen listed. Bought a variable voltage/current DC power supply. Picked up most of the stuff at the grocery store, Home Depot and McMaster-Carr.

Nuts, Washers, sleeve clamps: all were solvent cleaned and then power wire brushed. Then the plated parts were dipped in Muriatic acid for a ten seconds or so, rinsed in water, then denatured alcohol, then plated, rinsed in alcohol, brushed (three times) for the results seen.

The brass was dipped in Muriatic acid for about 1 minutes, rinsed in alcohol, plated and brushed three times.

The hose clamp was dipped in Muriatic acid for five to ten minutes (I didn't clean it prior at all, it looked just like the unplated one). rinsed in alcohol, then plated and brushed three times.

The whole thing was quite easy. Total cost around $120-130 ...INCLUDING the nice DC power supply. Probably enough supplies to zinc thousands of small parts.

I've got some sodium di-chromate on the way so I can do the proper yellow chromate conversion coating (the gold iridescent coating) when necessary.

I'm working on finding the proper formula to treat the yellow chromate to clear (could be as simple as vinegar as suggested by a forum member in another post).

It's hard to find info on electro plating. Much of it is geared toward commercial plating, and many sources don't want to give up any formulas, or are afraid of treading on proprietary information. Much of what is out there is quite old, or from hobbyist like ourself just using trial and error. Plus everyone is scared of giving advice on the use of any kind of chemical that might be harmful in any way. The pros don't want to give out any real useful info to amateurs cause.... you'll just put your eye out ...... they'll just repeat a lot of safety concerns and tell you to have a professional do the work.

In many cases the "good" chemicals are still legal to use by the hobbyist because they don't use them in the volume, or for profit, as big companies do....which is the case with a lot of materials these days.

Anyway ...if anyone is curious I will certainly divulge everything I know about the subject from my experiments.
JohnnyB

PS. The brass fitting was only done so I KNOW that parts are actually getting plated ... cause it works so good it's hard to believe. Of course if you dip a zinc plated part into the Muratic acid you will know it's plated, creates a pretty energetic reaction.