Bolt Finish

[Richard McDonel]

This not a suspension specific question, but but applies to all parts.  Can anyone tell me what colour of finish is correct  for nuts, bolts and washers on a 71 240z?

Thanks

[Careless]

I've been looking at this as well, and have come to the conclusion that there are many (most) parts that are to be chromate finished, but that is rare finish to come by nowadays.

 

The best thing to do is find a local plater that can match a yellow zinc plated finish to the chromate finish as close as possible, as chromate finishes are almost impossible to get (at least one that matches the datsun kind).

 

A word of advice from myself and my plater who advised me on this: Buy a tumbler. An 18lbs one from eastwood or harbor freight is ideal. You can dump some fasteners in there and do something else while it chugs away for 4 hours.

 

I told my plater that I have ordered one, and he was ecstatic (probably because he knows I'll have buckets of hardware for him to plate in the near future).

 

With the larger 18lb bowl versions, you can even toss the hood hinges in there, or anything about 4 inches wide and 10 inches long, or even 6x6ish in flat size. 

 

The different media and different times alotted to each type will provide a nice base so that the zinc finish that is applied doesn't come out "sparkley", which is what sandblasting will provide you with, as it does not even out the surface. I've found that sandblasting pits the surface very finely and the peaks and valleys left from the process produce a very slight "metalic" look. If you see a NOS plated part from datsun, it's not quite polished, but it's a very subdued plating colour.

My plater here in Toronto can match the colour pretty close from what I've seen, but the end result is all in the pre-process finish that you provide them. Some things they will not do (i.e. -remove paint from all your little nuts and bolts).

 

I will post an update on how they turn out soon.

 

I have just refinished all the brake line and fuel line hardware and capped them off with custom M10 flare fitting caps and rubber caps with crimp caps to have those plated- so I can post photos when they come back. I'm dropping them off in 4 hours.

 

For anyone wondering... my plater uses a 7 foot tank, and some lines are longer. You can gently bend a wide arc into the longest portion of the lines that are outside of that dimension, and straighten it when you get it back- which is the only solution I've come up with.

 

If need be, I will purchase a line straightener at some point- but I am going to try and get it as close to straight as possible with my current tools.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Careless

[Namerow]

Interesting.  Two questions:

 

1. Who is your plater in Toronto?
    
2. In rough numbers, how much do you think you'll have spent when you get done with all your hardware plating?  (Sorry, but I have to ask)

[John Coffey]

A lot of the fasteners are still available from Nissan in the original finish.  Some enterprising soul can buy in boxes of 50/100 and create complete kits for sale to folks that are willing to pay extra for the effort.