Plating bolts

I sent a batch to Hearn Plating in Ohio. Cost around $125 or so, took about 2 weeks. Is there no place close you can slip a guy some cash to do it?

Send dogger315 a pm, whomever does his plating for his
resto's is top notch, he could give a ballpark price estimate
as well I would imagine-GL!

I had some hardware replated (clear zinc?)in Houston back in 2004. I have the shop name at the office. Minimal batch fee was $85.00. My recommendation is to clean and inspect anything you send off. If you send nice stuff, you'll get back nice stuff. If you send crusty pitted stuff, you'll get back shiny pitted stuff.

This. Prep everything the best you can.

X2

I had to get some of my stuff done 3 times before I was happy with it. I've learned that you need to prep it yourself otherwise they just throw it in the bath and you get what you get.
A wire wheel on the bench grinder and Tergo rust killer works wonders.

I use a local place when I'm in England but it's a pain bringing them over on the plan. Walk in the back door, friendly chat with the foreman, give him a box of parts all clean and bagged separately for gold, silver plating and any anodising I want doing with the desired colour written on the bag. He usually says come back tomorrow morning and charges me £20.Don't bother getting chewed up nuts and bolts re-plated as they still look bad, get new ones unless they aren't available. Get friendly with the people you need and it doesn't hurt to drop them a pack of beer now and then!

Yep, best to grab new oes when you can, or buy new silver ones and have replanted as gold, etc..


You can also plate nylocs and bits with plastic or rubber molded on...

Agreed, you can have brake hose ends re-plated and it doesn't affect the rubber, also radiator caps with the seal inside.

MAXPOWER- I live in NC and I found a place in Greensboro, NC called Parker Metal Refinishing. (336) 275-9657....they are a huge plating operation.

He charged me $100 for a 1/2 full shoe box (alot of bolts), charged me less after I kept coming back with more although when I dropped off my MUGEN bolts the price was back at $100...lol...he does such good work it was worth it to me.

I am really picky about the quality and his work is second to none. The big thing is the bolt prep....I sit in front of my parts cleaner with a toothbrush scrubbing each nut/bolt.

I am lucky because I can drop off my stuff so I dont risk losing the bolts getting lost by UPS/USPS.

Anyway, I am not sure where you live....I am sure there are planty of people but i can tell you this guy is good.

Best, Tim

I will second the recommend on Parker in N.C. I sent enough to do about 1.5 bikes and it was $100. I had both silver and gold zinc done and they both came back great. I plan to use them on my current project also.
I will also agree on the prep work. You send crap, you great clean shiney crap.

Yes on the Zinc...... but make sure you clean the stuff really good!

He will ask you what color....I usually go with silver. If you use my name he might charge you more....lol

Good luck!
Tim Hunt

I do my own zinc plating. It is fun..........but time consuming.

Max power-glad it worked out. Tim Hunt

How about brake and shifters were part of it is Aluminum riveted on the steel ?

Aluminum won't plate. You have to take it apart.

Here's the stuff I have done on the back wheel of my Husky. You can get a DIY plating kit form Caswell or Eastwood. You don't have to worry about the platers loosing unobtainium parts.

Those bolts turned out nice. I tried the "plate at home" route years ago with kits from Eastwood and Caswell.
My hardware turned out good, but the plating dulled over time (a couple of years), to the point where I ended
up sending them out for replating. These bolts were all on display bikes in climate controlled environments,
so I expected better longevity than that. I did some more research and discovered the original bolts were all
Cadmium plated. Cad plating is much more durable than Zinc. The problem is Cadmium is also a known
carcinogen and the process has been regulated to the point where very few companies still offer it. I was
restoring this bike to museum quality, so everything had to be original spec, which in this case meant Cad
plating only. I finally found a shop that specializes in this kind of work and have used them ever since.

Here's a picture of some hardware I plated using a Caswell Zinc plating kit:



The bolts turned out nice and looked good at first, but eventually lost their shine. This is common with plate at
home kits. If you look at what commercial platers use in terms of power and chemicals, their is no comparison.

If you just want your restoration to look nice and shiny, Zinc will work. If you want your restoration to look
authentic, and it is a bike built from the 70s to late 80s, you will need to use Cadmium. There is no Zinc
plating process that will replicate the rainbow hues effect you find in something that was plated with Gold
Chromate Cadmium. Here's a picture of a shock from a 79 CR250. The shock collars were Gold Chromate
Cad plated. If you look closely (since the picture is kind of small), you can see the rainbow effect on the
upper shock collar. It's much more obvious in person:



Here's another picture showing the Cad plated hardware on a restored airbox for the same bike:



Cad plating to get the Silver look is called clear Cad. Here is a picture of clear Cadmium plated bolts (along with some Gold
Chromates). All the hardware in this picture is original and 30 years old when the picture was taken in 2009. It all looks
the same today:



Cad plating is not cheap, you won't get a batch done for $100, but it will last and it is the correct finish if that kind of thing
matters to you.

Just throwing out some information for any hard core restoration enthusiast.

dogger

Cool stuff dogger

I know Aluminum won't plate, my question is can the steel be plated with the Aluminum still attached ? The reason being the special rivets that are used to attach the two together I've never seen any like that for sale, I would have no way to reattached them if I were to grind or drill the rivets out, see pictures below.

The Aluminum won't respond well to the plating process. From the two pictures you attached, It looks like an 83 - 87 CR.
I know those two parts are NLA, so restoration is your only option. The good news is those parts are easily disassembled
and can be restored to like new condition. The bad news is you will need to spend a little extra buying a specialty riveter.

The rivet for the brake pedal is a common button rivet available from many of the rivet suppliers listed on the internet. All
you need to do is measure the head height and diameter, the shank length (and add a couple of mm), specify the material
(Aluminum) and place the order. If there is any question, supply them with a picture. You'll probably have to buy 50 or so
(minimum order), but even that will cost less than $5. The rivet squeezer you'll need is something like this:
http://www.aircraft-tool.com/shop/detail.aspx?PRODUCT_ID=ATSRS-1SD

The shifter is also easy. Judging from the condition of the tip, it looks like it's time to change it out anyway. The good news
is it's pretty much the same tip still used today. I replace mine all the time because i use the Hammerhead shift extensions.
That requires me to drill out the rivet to get rid of the OE tip and replace it with the extension. Hammerhead supplies a nifty
bolt and reciever arrangement to put it back together. You can use that - it looks very close to stock, or you can go the same
route with another rivet this time specifying a flat head, hollow shank rivet. Here's a picture of the Hammerhead bolt and
receiver so you can see what that option looks like:



Get the return spring and brake cleat plated, clean up the Aluminum with WD40 and a Scotchbrite pad and you'll have two
pieces that look and perform like new.

dogger