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MG MGA - substitute for cad plating?

I need to cadmium replate my seat slides, spare tire clamp wing nut, and the part of the handbrake that attaches to the transmission tunnel. Except for a few large industrial platers in the Chicago area who aren't interested in a small lot order (and would probably lose the parts anyway), I can't find anyone to do this. Has anyone here found a substitute for cad plating, maybe tin-zinc, with good results?
Thanks, George.

G Goeppner

George. What are you trying to do? Is your desire to protect the metal from rusting, to recreate the original style of finish, or both? Is this a show car or a driver? All of those will have an effect on what is acceptable.

For "simulated" cad plating, Eastwood sells a kit for this purpose. Have not tried it myself but the photos would indicate that it might be worth investigating. The company claims that it is developed to provide that "factory/original" look for show car parts.

If you are not interested in a show car style of finish, better finishes are available than were to be had back in the early 1960s.

Industrial hard chrome plating and electroless nickel plating have been fully developed since that time. The electroless nickel provides a particularly protective coating. Both require that a person having the proper plating equipment apply the finish. You would have to detail strip the pieces yourself, but plating companies dealing with firearms might be willing to abrasive blast and plate your parts. They are used to the extra work required when dealing with small lots of parts and have priced their services accordingly. Robar, in the Phoenix area, has been willing to do this type of work in the past. But, they are expensive.

One of the best finishes available, and suitable for application at home, is called "Gun Kote" and is made by K-G Industries. It does require that the parts be abrasive blasted, throughly cleaned, then sprayed with the coating. After the coating has dried throughly, it needs to be baked in an oven (not one used for food) for an hour.

Gun Kote, designed for military cannons, can be abrasive blasted off the parts easily. (Plating, often, is much more difficult to remove.) It is resistant to most organic solvents--including brake fluid-I use it on master cylinders. It holds up well on parts which are heated regularly--the brake drums I did five years ago still look new.

I have picked up several of the $5 air brush systems from Harbor Freight for spraying Gun Kote on car parts. They also work well with POR-15 if it is thinned slightly. I was given an old kitchen oven when some neighbors purchased a new one and had to dispose of their old range. Old ovens are available from some of the used appliance stores, especially those not in "the better part of town" where older appliances are both sold and broken apart for spare parts.

A small bead blast set up is available from Harbor Freight for a fair price and media blasting services are available for larger parts or if one does not want to purchase a bead blast operation one's self.

Depending on what you desires are, there are some much better finishes available than when these cars were first produced. If you are trying to apply a protective coating to parts, rather than replicate the original finish for a show car, the industrial technology of today will allow you a number of options developed from the firearms, to petroleum transfer, to railroads.

Les
A compressor is needed for all of these operations, but, when one has owned a compressor for a while, you realize how useful it is to have one around. Everything from operating a media blast system to the wife using it to clean small household items.
Les Bengtson

Thanks for your comments Les. I have used the Eastwood kit with some success on nuts and bolts, but I don't know how well it works with a large part like a slide from the seat assembly. Might need a larger power supply than the D-size battery used for bolts, or it will take forever! Besides providing corrosion resistance, my understanding of the cad plating is that it provides some "lubricity" characteristics, which seems a good thing on the hand brake pawl and the seat slides. I have no problem with part prep, I can bead blast to bare metal with great results. You're right about electroless nickel, and I am considering that option, although it might be a "brighter" finish than I'd like. I will also follow up on some of the gun refinishing possibilities, I had heard about these before but know nothing about them.
Thanks again, George
G Goeppner

Just to mention one thing - I always was under the impression that the spare tire clamp (bracket) was painted black rather than plated. I think Zinc plating was used originally on the cars - rather than cad.

Good luck with your car,

Jeff
J Delk

You aren't limited to the Eastwood size system for cad-plating. Do a search on the net on how to build your own system. You can make it any size that you require, cheap!

Rich
Rich McKIe

George,

I used the Eastwood system for a lot of small parts on my restoration but not the seat rails. I did do the adjuster levers. It is a tin plating process and takes some polishing after plating to get it to look good.

The advantage is it is relatively cheap and easy to set up and use--and it works well enough. Image of some parts assembled after plating and polishing attached.

Jim


Jim Ferguson

You could check with John Twist or Todd Clarke, both at one time had contacts.
gary starr

http://www.caswellplating.com/
Del Rawlins

Try John Farrel (631) 454-7977. He mostly deals with Jaguars parts and plating. He did the the front suspension and brake capliers for me on my Jag. Like Todd Clarke he is very go at catering to the car enthusiast. This is his web page. http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/tread/1046/index.htm
DAVE SALTER

George, Del didn't elaborate, but Caswell has the chemicals and information and doing the cad plating at home isn't too expensive or difficult. Might be a good club project if there were others that could use it. I'm collecting plastic buckets from the cat food now for future use. ;-)
Bill Young

Thanks for all the input guys. I'm aware of Caswell, a friend used their system on a Corvette restoration. Apparently he had mixed results, I'm not convinced he properly cleaned the parts first though. I found an industrial source in Chicago, but his minimum charge for cad plating is making the DIY approach look more attractive.
G Goeppner

This thread was discussed between 26/06/2008 and 02/07/2008

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