The Official 356Talk Forum

Is there any interest in a one stop service to restore (clean, strip, media blast and re-plate) old hardware such as nuts, bolts, screws, washers, etc.? Mainly zinc but could also include cad.

Jim, I think there is interest in a one-stop shop. Obvious factors would be price and turn around time. Concerns I have with a local plater are quality and loss of parts. They are close enough that I can drop off parts but a concern would be shipping and loss during shipment either to or from.

Mike

The service would be a high quality one. Any loss would be possible only in shipping. No mixing of jobs. Turnaround would be a few days aside from shipping, depending on the quantity. Most platers have a minimum charge, usually around $100. There would be no minimum - based on size of order. Pricing would be determined before placing order. Parts would be individually plated, not batch plated, so quality would be much higher than commercial shops.

Jim Wayman wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 7:12 pm The service would be a high quality one. Any loss would be possible only in shipping. No mixing of jobs. Turnaround would be a few days aside from shipping, depending on the quantity. Most platers have a minimum charge, usually around $100. There would be no minimum - based on size of order. Pricing would be determined before placing order. Parts would be individually plated, not batch plated, so quality would be much higher than commercial shops.

Jim, that sounds attractive to me.

Ditto...very appealing especially for small parts like those on carburetors.
Jim, any pics of your work?

Mike

Will post some shortly.

Yes, I would use this service!!

Are parts wire hung or tumbled? Thank you.

They are not batch processed, they are wire hung. I will post a detailed description of the entire service in a little while. Still considering whether to go larger scale.

Jim,

I would be a customer depending on the look of the plating. The original zinc was a bright silver. I have been having a very hard time duplicating it over here made even more difficult by the ban on chrome 6 in the EU.

Joris

I have been having good success in getting zinc plating to look anywhere from Cadmium to the old zinc without the blue.

Jim

Here is a summary of what is being considered. I am partnering with Flawless Zinc Plating which is near me. I have used them for the past few years and have referred them to many, all of whom have been thrilled with the plating. As an example of their work, they did much of the plating for the recent overall Parade winning 550 Spyder. This concept is to take it a step further. One would send in their hardware without the need to clean or prepare it. The parts would first be ultrasonically cleaned to remove all dirt and grease. Then they would be submerged in a mild acid solution to remove any previous plating and some rust. Next, they would be media blasted with a fine grit glass media. They would then be individually inspected to ensure that they are thoroughly clean and free of any rust, plating, etc. Finally they would be zinc plated individually, not in batches to the degree of finish desired. It is recommended that a sample of the sheen of finish desired be submitted with the order. The sheen can be varied from a cad look to shiny zinc, all without the blue sheen. Gold zinc would also be available. Plating is similar to painting in that the plating will not hide surface imperfections in the base material, so it is recommended that pitted items not be submitted. While the basic service would be for nuts, bolts, screws and washers and other small parts, it is possible to handle larger items on a case by case basis such as valve covers. Recently we zinc plated the entire engine sheet metal for a 4 Cam to look like cad. The owner had not had success in getting a commercial plater to do the job. My experience with platers that will prepare parts is that they charge about $60 per hour for the cleaning and media blasting work in addition to the plating cost which usually starts at a minimum of at least $100. This service would charge on a per unit basis at around $ .75 per piece. Items other than normal hardware would be priced on request. Return shipping cost would be additional. This would be a boutique type of service concentrating on high quality and would be suitable for concours cars and high quality drivers or anyone who just wants a job done right. Thoughts on the process and pricing are encouraged before finalizing the business model.

Sounds great! Plating has always been one of the most frustrating things to deal with.

Jim, so if I understand this right, cleaning and plating a bolt, nut, washer, etc. would be .75 each not including shipping. How about smaller items like carburetor parts? What about slightly larger parts like bell cranks, accelerator rods, etc.? This sounds very promising.

Mike

Items like bell cranks, accelerator rods and others of like size would be comparably priced.