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Let's talk about Porsche clamps, corrosion, and plating.
I've been nibbling around the edges (removing engine lift eyes, e-test port tubes, diverter valve, air pump hoses) in preparation for my intake and cam cover refresh. The clamps on the hose from the air pump to the diverter valve were particularly crusty with calcium carbonate and what appeared to be corrosion. I say appeared because I see no sign after a bath in CLR 50/50. I knew this test would likely destroy any remaining cadmium (Zinc) coating, but these are air pump to diverter valve clamps so who cares. What surprised me is how pristine the clamps appeared coming out of the bath. In fact, they appear to be stainless steel and have zero corrosion. What looked like corrosion was all in the plating. Maybe this is by design, or maybe the plating on these clamps is.....cosmetic (?). One thing this exercise did was cause me to look at these clamps more closely. They are beautifully engineered!! The materials and clamping screw drive mechanisms are really fine quality, and protect the hose while applying even pressure. Ok, most of you already know this...but I'm still puzzled about the plating because these stainless clamps don't appear to need any. Or do I need a bit more education?
I forgot to take pictures before and after so I ran out and grabbed another clamp - which isn't as crusty with deposits as the ones that took a bath.
Was looking into zinc plating for some engine components locally. Ended up at a dead end with either "we only do commercial accounts" or minimum charge of $130 to do two small pieces. Are there any places in the U.S.A. or online that anyone has had experience with?
Reminder that the plating, be it cadmium or zinc, is sacrificial by design. The idea is that the coating will do all the reacting with whatever corrosive agent comes in contact with it, giving up ions to the reaction more readily than the base metal. Dropping the pieces in CLR sacrifices any remaining coating in a hurry, exposing the still pretty because it was so well protected base metal. Now those are ready for replating or replacement. Or, if they really are stainless steel, put them back on and enjoy the new bright finish.
CLR is one of the basic go-to household chems needed when doing restoration. If you have corroded steel fasteners or pieces that are otherwise not replaceable, CLR does a darn good job getting rid of the apparent corrosion. It leaves you with a good clean but raw steel piece when you are done. It doesn't do anything for restoring the or replacing base metal already lost to corrosion, so areas that were previously rusted will have the already-oxidized metal removed, with nothing where it used to be. That "nothing" is typically pits or surface scarring.
Good news on clamps: You can buy new pretty pieces to replace the old ones you take off. The various flavors are available from our supporting vendors, and many are available in the inter markets with some searching. PET lists many of the clamps by size if you need to find something local in a pinch to get by until the proper pieces arrive. As our toys move slowly closer to collectible status, stupid details like the correct clamps will more and more be telltales of how diligent an owner has been about originality. As interesting as some engine bays look with bright stainless clamps on intake pipes for instance, with screws and tails right up on top, I'm more inclined to like the dull yellow cad clamps, carefully installed with the screw drives tucked underneath out of sight. Ditto the rest of the clamps and connections on the car. There's really not anything bright or polished in the original engine bay. Also no red or yellow vacuum hoses or ignition wires, no polished aluminum cross-braces or manifold sections. In case anybody asks... This is all personal taste of course, and you are obviously welcome to do anything you'd like to your own car. Good news is that stuff like clamps can be returned to original fairly easily, making it easy to change from a C&C show-off to a collectible museum piece for a couple $hundred and a few hours. My memory isn't what it used to be though, so I store all the original and original-type pieces on the car so they don't get lost or mixed up. My two cents.
Burbank Plating has been pretty good to work with on getting real cad plating redone. In Burbank, Ca. Rob & William used a place in Orange county Ca, a little closer to where they did the Minerva project. Look in that thread for specifics. Burbank takes buckets of bits, charges by the pound with a minimum. It makes sense to send everything at once so the pieces all match. Because the plating is done in bulk, you'll want to carefully catalog where each piece came from on the car, by size. It will all come back as a bulk shipment, so be ready to sort through everything before reassembly. Also, work with your plater to make sure you know how much cleaning you will do and how much they will do prior to the actual plating. Good even prep is key to getting good even results. Know also that things like washers, particularly exposed suspension washers, will likely have scratches and grooves that won't be hidden by replating. Be prepared to buy new pieces, and send them along with the rest of your used bits so the color and finish match perfectly.
Replating a few pieces at a time is not a good idea. It's way expensive for one thing. The "new" pieces look great, but sudden;ly the not-new pieces stick out like a sore thumb. Plus the pieces you have plated start to deteriorate as soon as they are exposed on installation, so the next set of freshly-plated pieces will be a little brighter and prettier than the stuff you did a year ago. Mark at 928 International mentioned that he sells removed fasteners by the pound. At some point I'll likely end up sitting down there for a day or two, sorting through buckets of hardware pieces to make up "full sets" for the suspension, wheelwells and the engine bay, for instance. Then drag that collection over to one of the platers mentioned, and let them do their magic.
Last, waste little time having yellow zinc plated on anything that will be out of the climate-controlled museum environment, at least if you want it to stay yellow. Yellow zinc, a chromate rinse really, deteriorates quickly to a grey zinc oxide protective surface layer. It's still well protected from further corrosion by that layer, it just isn't as "pretty" anymore.
Looks great. I'll have to get some of that CLR stuff.
It's not ideal if you want to preserve the cadmium or zinc plating. But, if re-plating the parts is the plan, nothing wrong with removing all corrosion and everything else using CLR. I find it works really well.
The cad plating on my GT was very original and nice when I got it 6 years ago, I wanted to keep it that way and found online some said to coat with WD40 as it's a water displacement product. I've done that each year religiously and plating still looks great. Just my $.02..
If you need just a couple of parts plated, Shaun at Tru6 will de-grease, de-rust, prepare, polish, and Cad-(real Cad, not zinc)-plate them.
It will take a couple of weeks because they'll get combined with other orders to make a full batch.
If you need a bunch of parts plated then Shaun's work gets pricey in total. But, since, like so many things, the outcome is all in the prep, if your time is valuable having him do the prep for you is cost effective.
Yellow Zinc plating, initially, will look bright and shiny. But, it 'goes away' really quick. Real cad plating tends to be a dull finish unless the parts are surface polished.
Here's a couple of bolts I had Shaun do in Cad for a high-dollar GTS where my Zinc Plating had dulled relatively quickly.
Was looking into zinc plating for some engine components locally. Ended up at a dead end with either "we only do commercial accounts" or minimum charge of $130 to do two small pieces. Are there any places in the U.S.A. or online that anyone has had experience with?
I didn't watch the video. But, I will tell you right now that doing quality Cad plating without proper protective clothing and a respirator is a quick road to serious health problems. A long time ago I looked into it: You can do (and I did) Yellow Zinc plating at home relatively safely. But Cad (and Chroming) is another story.
I always clean as much as I can the parts before sending them for plating.
The cleaner they are before, the better they'll turn out after.
I sent all my parts (3 different times if I remember well) to a place in Ottawa.
It cost me around 50$ CDN each time. Not much. From bolts and nuts to biger parts like hinges, quadrant... http://zincon.squarespace.com/
The parts are still quite nice after few years. I don't drive the car much though.
The car is kept inside in a non heated/conditioned garage. Temperature can go from -15C to 25C.
The quadrant as been done in 2011. This pic was taken in 2015.
Did you have to disassemble the quadrant for plating? And remove the screws from all the hose clamps?
How can the black socket head screws for example on the intake side covers and fuel rail plastic cover be reconditioned? The original finish appears like gun blueing to me, which can be easily done at home for cheap.
Did you have to disassemble the quadrant for plating? And remove the screws from all the hose clamps?
How can the black socket head screws for example on the intake side covers and fuel rail plastic cover be reconditioned? The original finish appears like gun blueing to me, which can be easily done at home for cheap.
I think they are anodized black. It is probably not difficult to purchase them new...perhaps from McMaster Carr.
I forgot to send in those black socket screws - a good thing, since they look better black, I think, and more original of course.
Yes, the quadrant must be completely disassembled. Press required for the bearings. Good drawing required, too.
You cannot be too thorough cataloging and photographing parts to be plated, down to the details of what you might find embossed on bolt heads. Nuts and washers must somehow be described perfectly. Budget two days for the exercise, including re-sorting them when you get them back. Do nothing to disturb the gods while they are shipped to and from the plater - imagine having to replace all these parts. (And UPS will not insure them fully unless sent express.)
I used Burbank - $200 minimum at the time. Bertrand's source would have been closer and cheaper - but I wouldn't have felt comfortable without driving them across the border. Due to miscommunication, I got the silver finish (over cadmium) - but I ended up liking it. I need to be more religious about spraying on a protective coating - I used Boeshield T-9, a wax-based product.
02-03-2018, 11:05 AM
Let's talk about Porsche clamps, corrosion, and plating.
