zinc plating?

This article is pretty good and was pretty much what I was looking for. I can get to the article directly with the link above but I sure can't find it linked off the guy's website. Good catch, how did you find it?

del

Another interesting read.

members.tripod.com/cb750K2/Technical/plating.html

it was from a link on an automotive website that was talking about zinc plating.

I also found this:

www.universitypublishinghouse.net/plating.html

I ordered a coupled of the $10 dollar books. From doing more reading I am going to blow off the prepackaged kits and do it myself for less than half the cost and twice the size. The materials and chemicals are pretty easy to get and with little experimentation should be cake.

dman3998 wrote:

it was from a link on an automotive website that was talking about zinc plating.

I also found this:

www.universitypublishinghouse.net/plating.html

I ordered a coupled of the $10 dollar books. From doing more reading I am going to blow off the prepackaged kits and do it myself for less than half the cost and twice the size. The materials and chemicals are pretty easy to get and with little experimentation should be cake.

cool stuff.

Zinc plating is really easy. The main part is the prep work. Use a good caustic cleaner on all your parts and distilled water. Distilled to clean in, distilled to rinse in, and distilled for activation. Also, the most important part is your variac. While the ones they supply will work, anything bigger than a nut or bolt and you want a good variac. The best part is is that an old electric train controller works perfect as it can be adjusted. make sure not to get too much zinc build up on the nuts and bolts or you will end up with no clearence to screw nuts on bolds, it will be filled with plating.

As far as nuts and bolts, it really is cheaper to find a fastener company and get all new nuts and bolts. The only place you will save money is from re plating hardline parts, like brackets etc. Another issue is going to be a lack of original shine. The bolts are originally put into tumblers to shine them, something you wont be doing. While you will be able to hand shine the part somewhat, it wont be nearly as close to the brightness as it was before.

Just to give you an idea, here is a pic of two pieces that were plated. The one on the left was not properly prepped like the one on the right and you can see the differences. They were both plated in the same tank and plate prepped the same. The only differences was the pre plating prep.

As for the shelf life, I have been using the same tank set up for over a year now, on my copper tank as it uses less chemicals than my zinc, nickle, gold, or brass tanks.

Not to sound discouraging, but you will not achieve factory like results by simply rezinc plating the nuts and bolts. This wont happen unless you put them in a tumbler to polish the nuts and bolts first. And to be honest, you really need to completely strip all of the old zinc off as well.

Kawickrice wrote:

Another interesting read.

members.tripod.com/cb750K2/Technical/plating.html

While much of the actually plating info is accurate, his expectations of the end result are glorified to say the least. Zinc plating is nowhere near as long lasting as either Nickel or Chrome plating and the shine of zinc is like brushed aluminimum compared to polished aluminium, which still isnt as shiney as Chrome or Nickel.

In fact, my major work for the last 4 years is plating over zinc because bare sizn does not have near as much shine nor does it hold up as well as Chrome or Nickel.

The left half is just polished zinc only. The right half is copper flash/bright nickel plating over zinc. They really do not compare to be honest.

yeah most dont realize the parts get polished before plating and between each step of the process to get really good chrome plating.

Electroless nickel is great for high heat areas like exhaust retainer clamps....if they're steel or iron. They come out looking great and the finish lasts and lasts with just an annual cleaning on your part.
It'll be interesting to hear how dman makes out with his investigation into actual chemical solutions, etc. Please keep us posted on this, dman.

As far as nuts and bolts, it really is cheaper to find a fastener company and get all new nuts and bolts. The only place you will save money is from re plating hardline parts, like brackets etc.

I figured that, I am replacing all possible hardware with Stainless but the custom stuff like the axle bolts and really long motor mount bolts, etc... the original plate is all off or rusted so the plan is to zinc stuff like that. and of course misc brackets. I have the equipment to pre-polish the metals before plating so I am hoping for a decent luster. I realize it is not as good as chrome. be fun just to say I did it anyway, don't plan on starting a business.

There are quite a few CC/CV power supplies on Fleabay, just have to get one big enough for the parts I need to do.

I am not sure where you are located, but the parts you have can be outright barrel plated rather than the usual reguler tank and wired up. Most places in my area will do them for 40 bucks a load, which means about every piece you would want done can be done in satin nickel, bright nickel, or chrome, which ever you choose. There really is no extra cost to doing the Chrome. Chrome is just a protective coating for nickel and is really cheap once you get the copper flash, nickel plating done. The satin nickel would give you a more zinc look, a decent sheen, but not like a chrome bolt would look. I would consider finding a place that could barrel plate everything.

The purpose of my original post was to get info on zinc plating. I need to do zinc plating as that is the original finish used on the parts I wish to restore. In their original state, they were not mirror finished... just brightened some from the dull state after their inital plating. I might try other things, like adding finish to carburetors or tops/bowls, at some point, but these are not of particular interest right now. I currently get parts replated (read original post) when doing specialized restoration work and the stuff comes back unpolished. I have the means to brighten and polish already. I have picked up enough in this thread to know what direction I want to go and will basically drop out and let the discussion move to other plating and finish issues that were not part of my original query. Thanks to all! This thread was most enlightening:

www.medial.com/suzuki/zinc-plated/