Bertrand Daoust

I disassembled the quadrant as much as I can.
Including all bearings. Put new ones after.

I remove the screw on all clamps before plating.

I only cleaned the black socket head screws on the intake covers.
Re-plated the ones on the fuel rail covers. Not original but I like the look.

BTW, I don't spray anything over the plating.
When / if it gets dull, I'll re-do them!

Captain_Slow

Bertrand,
Did you just clean/degrease parts before sending to the plater? I'm wondering if a CLR bath to remove old plating which may have partially or completely sacrificed itself to corrosion would be wise. I guess the shop doing the plating gives the parts an acid bath first.

NoVector

I'm wondering if your post-CLR cleaned parts have enough zinc on them that you could just dip them in dichromate and they'd be okay. It sucks that new Porsche fasteners, clamps, etc. don't have yellow/iridescent finish. BUT, assuming new parts are zinc plated, they would only have to be dipped in dichromate to get the right color.

I haven't tried it yet, but thinking if a part was sprayed with cold zinc spray and then dipped in dichromate would look okay. It wouldn't bond as well as zinc plating, but for parts that are just "bling" like the top of the air diverter, it may be okay.

That's a good video.

Adk46

Burbank told me that I should certainly clean my parts from munge and crud, but they'd be sending them through a cleaning line that would otherwise get 'em they way they like. I'm guessing that line includes chemicals that make CLR seem like Ivory soap in comparison. In any case, I did not spend much time cleaning, Burbank did not complain, and the results were good.

Bertrand Daoust

I use my (very old!) bench steel wire polisher to clean/polish all parts first.
Yes, the platter put all parts in an acid bath first. That's what they told me.
That's the only thing they do to clean the parts. That's why the smoother you bring the parts, the better they'll come out.

If your parts are nice, like the clip you show, I would send them like that. Screw removed of course.

worf928

Captain_Slow

Curt - my apologies if I show up to Camp 928 in Suburban. I feel the slippery mission creep slope...better put on the crampons.

voskian

Jon, no problem, between your Suburban and Curt's Unimog, you two can pull out and tow any of us that get stuck or break down!

Bertrand Daoust

You'll be done by then Jon.

Stay positive!

dr bob

A few of us have privately discussed the hazards of mechanically self-removing existing CAD plating. Seems that cadmium is on the EPA's sh!tlist due to some serious longer-term health concerns. Bottom line for me anyway is to let the platers do the final stripping if you can. If you want to polish the pieces before plating, use CLR or similar to strip off the old plating rather than grinding blasting or wire-wheel methods. Cadmium in the stripping solution is technically a hazardous waste product, so consult your local rules before you put it down the drain or dump it in a sewer or storm drain. The stricter rules are why there are so few good cad and good chrome platers left in the business.

The places like Burbank plating are still supporting the local aerospace and defense businesses. They are just a few miles from the old Skunkworks site in Burbank, and a few more miles from what will undoubtedly be Superfund cleanup sites for Rocketdyne and others not that far north. The shopping center around the corner there took a pretty massive amount of soil replacement to entomb the contaminated ground underneath, including full building foundations and paving, and a lot of careful runoff planning. Meanwhile, CalTrans is moving a similarly massive amount of soil adjacent to that now-gone Lockheed facility, immune to the rules that were so strictly applied to the building site itself. Makes you wonder. There are supposedly very strict groundwater monitoring efforts in the area for heavy metals in the local ground-sourced drinking water.

Fun stuff!

Eplebnista

I had these guys do zinc plating for me - https://www.facebook.com/kustomkarefinishingllc/

More local to me than you but closer than Burbank. Shaun Budka's work cannot be replicated - his work is great but was above my price point.

Since farming out the work, I have started zinc plating on my own. It is not hard and you can just acid dip the part and start again if you are not happy with the yellow chromate. Lightly corroded parts can just be cleaned up and dipped in the yellow chromate.

Captain_Slow

Part of my masters work (USGS flood hydrologist in training) I helped another student compute maximum flood potentials from probable maximum storm estimates and rainfall-runoff modeling --- at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal east of Denver. I can only describe how I felt walking around doing stream cross section surveys as "Chernobyl-esque". Seriously nasty stuff made there back in the day!!

Captain_Slow

I've watched some great YouTube vids on how to do this zinc plating. I think I prefer it to the Cadmium stuff for obvious safety and environmental reasons, and also because based on what you've stated here and in another thread it seems easy to mae it shiny new very easily.

Captain_Slow

This time around I'm going to stick to only doing a component replacement refresh. I will clean everything really well, and I'll give all the clamps a bath in CLR until they are shiny base metal. I will apply either a wax coating or use the WD-40 treatment Bob described. I want to see how it looks very clean with very slight patina. Maybe 5-10 years from now I'll do the cosmetic restoration.

NoVector

I just re-read Dr. Bob's post, but I think he's saying if you dip it in CLR you won't have any protection (CAD, zinc, etc.) and it will be exposed raw steel. Personally I wouldn't use only wax or wd-40 as the only rust and oxidation deterrent for raw steel. IMHO: removing the plating = replating.