Eastwood Tin-Zinc Plating kit

[TomoHawk]

The best part of all this fun is that in another 30 or 40 years,

You can do it all over again!

[ajmcforester]

OK the results look good, but not the correct color with the Caswell system for the 240z has anyone found a way to adjust this I took picture of OEM part with the newly plated T-joint. I have about 50 to 60 spare parts I plated trying to get a match this came out the closest. I'll more than likly call caswell, when I bought the system they told me it will match. These kits are not cheap so I hope they or you all out their can help.

[Mike B]

OK the results look good, but not the correct color with the Caswell system for the 240z has anyone found a way to adjust this I took picture of OEM part with the newly plated T-joint. I have about 50 to 60 spare parts I plated trying to get a match this came out the closest. I'll more than likly call caswell, when I bought the system they told me it will match. These kits are not cheap so I hope they or you all out their can help.

I hate to say it, but I don't think there is anyway to get the original look you want (real cadmium plating) using zinc and yellow chromate. That has been my concern all along about using these home plating kits, the parts just come out looking yellow/gold in my opinion. I am holding out until I can find a place that does true cadmium plating so I can send all my parts out to have them done in one batch. There have been discussions about cadmium plating in the past. Here is a comment from Carl Beck that summarizes it pretty well http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=168664&postcount=11.

Eastwood sells a three step paint kit that is supposed to give a cad look to parts. Maybe you could try to add the red and green highlights from that kit, but I'm not sure how that would look or hold up http://www.eastwood.com/golden-cad-kit.html.

-Mike

[motorman7]

OK the results look good, but not the correct color with the Caswell system for the 240z has anyone found a way to adjust this I took picture of OEM part with the newly plated T-joint. I have about 50 to 60 spare parts I plated trying to get a match this came out the closest. I'll more than likly call caswell, when I bought the system they told me it will match. These kits are not cheap so I hope they or you all out their can help.

It looks like it needs more brightener. I put the hole bottle of brightener in my 3 gallon tank. Seems like that comes pretty close. Your 'T' looks too dull.

These are the nuts and bolts I made with the caswell kit

[Diseazd]

I send my items out, but the more sanding, blasting or grinding (anything abrasive) I do before dropping them off..... the worse the result. My secret is degrease the items first, then submerse in Muriatic acid for 3-5 minutes. Don't laugh till you try it! The result is awesome, but the acid doesn't remove grease. At $5.00 a gallon......it's cheap and almost O effort.

[ajmcforester]

I send my items out, but the more sanding, blasting or grinding (anything abrasive) I do before dropping them off..... the worse the result. My secret is degrease the items first, then submerse in Muriatic acid for 3-5 minutes. Don't laugh till you try it! The result is awesome, but the acid doesn't remove grease. At $5.00 a gallon......it's cheap and almost O effort.

Smart move doing an acid etch, I just might cut back the time a little. I found at 5% active acid for 10-15 seconds did well anything after that didn't do much before plating. I tried after the zinc plating a 15 second soak then I cut .25% of what Caswell recommended and for only 3 minutes and it's a lot closer, but the color is still not right. Caswell told me it would match I'll give their ideas a shot when I contact them.

It looks like it needs more brightener. I put the hole bottle of brightener in my 3 gallon tank. Seems like that comes pretty close. Your 'T' looks too dull.

These are the nuts and bolts I made with the caswell kit

I didn't add the brighter because they state that's for the zink and to get the best simulated results to cadnium they state not to add. I'll let them tell me that. What I see is the color does not match and the brightener should not affect that. Now adding something to the yellow-chromate might work and make a custom blend

Your fasteners look great, they look a little to bronze to match with original parts. I have a lot of NOS cad parts that I plan to install so having a near perfect match will help the overall look of the car. I do agree that part looked a little dull it just came the closest to correct color with that T, maybe because It still had some cad left on it before the zinc plating.

I bet some of the flatness also came from the lack of polishing; the yellow-chromate was pitted but not the base cad so I acid etched the and removed the yellow-chromate and replated. Something I might try on the less visible parts since the Cad is far better at protection, and a layer of zinc on top can't hurt either.

[TomoHawk]

Has anyone done any corrosion- or salt-spray testing?

The plating should hold up for a while, but how long? I'm plating especially the parts that are getting rusty, not just the ones that have lost the original plating.

Maybe the Caswell people have some information on this...