Valve Cover Prep for Plating

[Dennis Vogel]

I'm preparing a batch of parts from our 1960 Super 90 to go out for plating. Among them are the valve covers which are the type that have the vents with ball check valves. Questions:

1. Should I disassemble the pin, mesh screen, and ball?
2. Do the pin, screen and ball get plated too?
3. Shall I media blast inside and out? I saw a thread where Brad Ripley suggested thoroughly bead blast first, but this seems to contradict the many threads warning against media blasting for anything contacting oil.
4. Any guidance on thickness of plating?

For those interested and / or in the know, my current plan is to go with zinc plating done by Van Nuys Plating.

I see there is a lot of debate as to whether zinc or Cad I was original. Seems like people who have tested engine components found it was inconsistent even on the same engine. I landed on Zinc based on the assertion of the Porsche 356: The Engine Handbook: An Engine Assembly Guide, and that if I ever want to do plating on my own it will need to be zinc.



As always, thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience.

[ray nelson]

Dennis
Disassemble, degrease and let the plating company handle it from there. Just tell them not to bead blast although there aren't too many nooks and crannies for the beads to hide in even if they do it. The ball and screen don't need to be plated in fact it may be a problem if they do.
I wouldn't powder coat since the bail will quickly scrape it off and I would simply just clean and reinstall unless they were extremely rusty which is hardly ever the case. All of the oil in that area usually protects them from rust (unless they're from one of Adam's cars that was pulled out of the Okefenokee Swamp)
Ray