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When I first got 951 years ago, I naively thought nuts and bolts would be the least of my problems sourcing. Today, I know how hard it is to find correct hardware... even things like the small thick washers. And if you do find some, it’s usually a 2 week order holding up your work!
This is a cool way to get original looking hardware. Do you think it would work on old stuff taken off the car? After some cleaning of course?
When I first got 951 years ago, I naively thought nuts and bolts would be the least of my problems sourcing. Today, I know how hard it is to find correct hardware... even things like the small thick washers. And if you do find some, it’s usually a 2 week order holding up your work!
This is a cool way to get original looking hardware. Do you think it would work on old stuff taken off the car? After some cleaning of course?
For sure! I've been doing the old nut/bolts coming out of a 79 Mercedes. I bead blast them down to raw metal then plate and chromate them. You can also clean with a wire brush and buffing wheel, but it takes longer. Either way, they go from a black crud-covered mess to little pieces of gold jewelry.
I had good luck with a 10-20% mix of muriatic acid with distilled water after physically cleaning the part. Strips the old plating off along with any corrosion. I wouldn't try and chromate used hardware without first stripping and replating... I think you would be wasting your time.
I had good luck with a 10-20% mix of muriatic acid with distilled water after physically cleaning the part. Strips the old plating off along with any corrosion. I wouldn't try and chromate used hardware without first stripping and replating... I think you would be wasting your time.
Agreed. I meant a wire wheel on the grinder as an alternate way to get to raw metal. I like the acid idea though.... I use the bead blaster because it also takes out minor surface imperfections.
Right. First zinc plate, then add color/additional protection with color. The original point of my thread was to say you can turn pre-plated silver bolts from the hardware store into Porsche looking yellow bolts with just a small bottle of yellow chromate. But if you want to redo old hardware, you'll need to strip, plate and chromate. I used the caswell CopyCad kit to plate (along with my own power supply) but see post 3 for a link to Odonnell's cool set up...
I love these threads about plating hardware, and am very tempted to take a crack at it. But I found a local guy who does it with a very quick turnaround. So now, i collect my hardware in a bucket, and when there is a enough, it goes to my plater guy, and done.... This bucket of bolts cost about $60, so not exactly cheap, but the quality was very good. I think for the next one I will ask if I can pre wire it for them as I think that is where a lot of the cost is. And I can do that while watching playoff hockey. after cleaning
04-23-2018, 10:58 AM
