Nuts and Bolts What to do?

[Captain Obvious]

This is a great thread.

Koalia, Hope you don't mind all the plating discussion.

Jerry, PM back to you.

[Reverend]

Not at all! Im interested in plating too as i have loads of parts that need to be plated

[bstrudg]

Crazy question, the bolts that hold on the front lower control arms will not fit through the crossmember. I have two different sets that I know are correct, why will they not fit trought?

[Lazeum]

Your question is weird. I guess it is because the bolt is not the right size or because the parts don't line up perfectly or because something is bent.

[73str86]

I too have investigated the plating process. So far I have been using a large wire brush mounted to a bench grinding machine. Laborious holding a bolt for a while at all angles; but it does make them shiny! The cheapest fake self plating kit I saw was about $54 for a three stage zinc/cadmium kit from Eastwood with less than stellar reviews on Amazon.

It's looking like many of my nuts and bolts will either be clear coated or painted Datsun engine blue to contrast the polished aluminum parts.

I recently purchased the double barrel rock tumbler from Harbor Freight Tools. Looking back, I could have gone with the single barrel. I bought some rust removal product from the same store, as well as a 40/70 glass mixture. I filled the barrel about 2/3 of the way with the rust removal product (small glass feeling pyramids with a funky smell), put water up to that level, then threw my bolts, nuts, and washers in. I wrote down which ones they were. They were pretty greasy, and the ones that weren't greasy had some rust in the threads and on their heads.

After 24 hours of it running in my garage, I checked out the bolts and they looked pretty clean and most of the rust-removal product had turned to a dirty sludge. I decided to stop the machine and rinse all the parts off and to restart them in the 40/70 grit mixture. It says it won't harm soft materials, and I'm hoping it'll polish them a little bit. I'll check on them in another 12 hours or so.

Overall I'm happy with the results so far and it lets me do other stuff while the machine is running. It's not too loud.

[mjr45]

I've used my ammo brass vibrating cleaner for some small parts, nuts and bolts with walnut shell media. It does a great job of cleaning them up, but leaves them very dull kind of light gray color. Just a thought.

[motorman7]

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After 24 hours of it running in my garage, I checked out the bolts and they looked pretty clean and most of the rust-removal product had turned to a dirty

Overall I'm happy with the results so far and it lets me do other stuff while the machine is running. It's not too loud.

What will you do with them once they are clean?? Once you have removed all of the zinc with the tumbling process you will be down to the bare steel. Anything not protected after this will rust unfortunately.

[Hardway]

Crazy question, the bolts that hold on the front lower control arms will not fit through the crossmember. I have two different sets that I know are correct, why will they not fit trought?

I ran in to this same issue when reassembling the front suspension on my '72. First, make sure you are putting the bolt in from the front side so that the head is basically sitting behind the steering accordion boot. You may have to move your wheels to get the boots out of the way. Second, you have to have the bolt in exactly straight. The hole seems just big enough for it to go in perfectly. I got mine on and gently tapped it with a rubber mallet to coax it in. Once it was about 1/4 of the way in they slid all the way in and out the other side.

[Reverend]

I have done the same, except not with tumbler but with chemical solution. Im planning to zinc spray them, should give adequate protection.

[bvolken]

I have a local plating company (Orange, CA) that will do small batches for cash.

The results are very close to the original CAD plating. Here are the fuel sender retaining ring, fuel filler neck and tank hanger bolts after bead blasting and "Gold Zinc Plating".

Compare the gas cap (NOS original filler cap, I'm assuming is CAD plated). It's too close to tell except by the most careful of inspection.

I also shoot everything with a clear 'satin finish' spray to milk out a few more years.

I'm slowly plating every scrap of exposed metal every chance I get - throttle linkage, fuel rail, fuel filter clip, Air filter wing-bolts, hood latch.

Looks awesome against the red paint!

I do also have a Harbor Freight 5lb "vibratory tumbler" (noisy SOB). It works well provided I use new sand - I just use playground sand from Home Depot.

The sand gets ground down pretty quickly (imagine those little glass bits that end up on the beach). I toss the old sand after every use. Seems to get into all the nooks-and-crannies quite well. Have to run the damn thing for 5-8 hours.

1971 240z

Photos

Restoration Blog

Edited February 8, 2013 by bvolken
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