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Home Plating using the Eastwood Kit
By Rich Chrysler
A few weeks ago I posted a message asking if anyone had thoughts or sources
for where one could go for zinc plating all the miscellaneous little parts,
screws, clips and so on for a restoration project.
I'd like to follow up on the results of all this, hopefully to benefit
others who need the same info.
My good friend, Blair Harber (remember all aluminum BN1 preproduction #14 at
Conclave this year) loaned me a plating kit he purchased from Eastwood's.
The kit contains all the things required to do zinc plating, including the
jug of electrolyte, sacrificial zinc strip, battery pack to hold 4 "D"
series batteries with clips, plastic containers, funnels, goggles, rubber
gloves, and instruction book.
I began by cleaning the parts with a brass wire wheel, rinsed them
thoroughly in a 4 to 1 water / muriatic acid to remove all traces of oils,
etc, rinsed again in clean water, dried, and plated immediately.
Larger parts such as brackets, levers, etc.were plated by clipping the one
lead straight onto the part and immersing into the electrolyte, agitating
gently for 3 to 4 minutes until adequate light grey looking zinc was
deposited onto the part, then it was immediately rinsed in clean water, and
set out to air dry.
The small bits such as screws, clips, special washers, etc. were set into a
fine wire metal sieve, the electrode clip was fastened to the handle and the
contents were emersed for 3 to 4 minutes, again agitating gently until the
plating was sufficient. This was rinsed with clean water, and the bits were
laid out to dry.
The final step, with the parts air dried, was to go over everything with
either a paste polish (also provided) or a very fine steel wool and the
parts became a bright zinc right away.
This process is really easy. Great care must be taken to use the acids with
respect, always using the rubber gloves, long sleeves and the goggles
provided, and of course don't stand directly over things to avoid breathing
the slight fumes.
I did this procedure in my garage with both 9ft doors open and a shop floor
fan running to circulate lots of fresh air. The actual plating process
itself took about 3 hours to plate everything needed for the BN2 I am
currently restoring.
I encourage anyone to give this home plating kit a try.
Rich Chrysler
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