[J.T.]

Hi all,

I am rebuilding my front suspention on my GTO and was wondering what coatings you have used to protect your hardware, control arm bolts, castle nuts,and other things you would put a wrench on. I am not doing a "restoration" but want it to look close to original, less the rust.

Thanks

[squidtone]

JT,
I have re-used most of the fasteners in my car, particularly the suspension and front end sheet metal hardware.

I did not have the resources (money and equipment) to plate anything, so here's what I did:

Wirewheeled every part clean. In some cases I sandblasted parts. Everything was bagged and tagged.

Got some Master Series silver primer, and coated every single part. I used various foam brushes. If you use a brush, you can get a nice thin coat. Sometimes just the excess on my gloves was enough to put on a coating. I did not dip parts; dipping would make a gloppy thick coating....not good.
Master Series is good stuff, I like it. It's tough, very hard, and the silver sheen is pretty close to zinc coatings. For stuff that was zinc plated, I left the master series stuff as is.
For black oxide coated fasteners, I simply flash coated the primered hardware with flat black spray bomb paint. If the paint is allowed to cure for a week or more, it gets pretty hard too, and wrenches don't do much damage. Any scratches can be touched up with flat black paint.

All in all, it looks good and, although slightly labor intensive, is cheap.

[geeteeohguy]

Cold gun bluing solution works great on the 'black' fasteners and does not chip or rust.

[SR-71]

Get a gallon of Evapo-Rust from Autozone $22.00 and after hitting the parts you want to remove the rust from with a wire wheel or even a scotchbrite dump them into a bucket with the Evapo-Rust. You will be shocked at how nice they turn out. I usually leave heavily rusted stuff in there a day or so taking them out to scrub them with the scotchbrite each day. Good strong new stuff works best but will still work when it turns to mud.