That was my question as well. The factory parts were mostly yellow zinc as I understand it, at least on the 944/951. CAD was used in earlier years I believe, like 356's etc. Kevin, I presume you used zellow zinc for your plating, right?

 

I believe a tax ID is a registration with the IRS for businesses ... as in owning your own. In this case it allows access to business-to-business services that aren't available to the general public (at least apparently not with the cadmium-dipper in question). Linky

 

I used Yellow Zinc.

 

My parts got Yellow too. Also black and blue are available, but i wanted to have a factory look. I would never again mechanically clean parts. I put all the parts (which are in those pictures) to citric acid for one night. That bath stripped most of the dirt & rust from them. Clean and easy. Plating shop also cleaned them more with theis own acids and then plated them. Plating is quite cheap, i paid 40€.

 

what about chrome plating? i found a bunch of places local that do chrome and nickel... i cant seem to find anything to do the cadmium though.

 

The 944 series had most hardware and specific parts done in a 'true' cadmium yellow finish similar to the aerospace finish still seen today. It was chosen for it's excellent corrosion resistance not for appearance. The is also a clearer silver colored cadmium plating that was used mostly in building industry. The coating that everyone here is calling yellow zinc is a zinc dichromate that is actually 'colored' to duplicate the look. Although not as corrosion resistant as true cadmium it is still very good if done right. Is less corrosion resistant and more suseptible to salt damage and mild acids. It's not really a good idea to chrome plate bolts used to connect with aluminum unless the clearance is designed for it. The chrome finsish is very hard and can easily gall the threads in a block or head. The chrome finish is thick enough that the thread can cause binding and damage to the receiving part.

 

If it dosen't move, Chrome it ...... Too bling bling for my taste

 

Chrome plating has a few things going against it: It changes the size of the respective part. On fasteners, that means you'll not get things to fit correctly. Also, you have to worry about a little thing called Hydrogen Embrittlement. I don't want a brittle fastener anywhere near my car.

Nickle plating is fine on larger parts to bring up the bling. Fasteners should be done with either zinc or cad.

 

well dangit... i cant find any places around here to do it.

 

Yep, yellow zinc. I just ordered the Caswell "Copy-Cad" plating kit to do some misc parts. Hopefully it makes parts look the same as the professionally plated ones.

 

Didn't you already have all your stuff re-plated in your engine remodeling?

 

Yes, but there are still some small parts that I missed, and I need to do some hose clamps, etc. during the new (stealth) turbo upgrade.

 

Yellow zinc is cheap and works. I have heard that is getting hard/expensive to do real Cad due to environmental issues - any truth to this?

 

Absolutely! Cadmium is a heavy metal and the bath solutions have to be sent to a certified site with a added premium for disposal. Cadmium is still available but it's next to impossible to get for small runs; aerospace and aviation are just about the only industry capable of justifying it's existence anymore and that too will probably fade away like high VOC car finishes. The yellow zinc dichromate is the next best thing at the moment. I've seen some of the parts plated with the Eastwood kit and they look pretty good but near perfect surface prep is still the rule of the day for good results.