Nickel and Zinc Plating DIY style

[Sludgetrap]

G,day Guru,s,,,,

Thinking about buying one of those DIY plating kits as taking all the pieces to a plater is costing me a fortune, mainly because if I take a small quantity , say 20 nuts and bolts or 5 kilo,s it costs the same price, trouble is they sell a Zinc kit and a Nickel kit.
When I get nuts , bolts and small parts done for originality they Nickel them, so I was wondering how much would have come out of the factory Zinced,, for me its a bit hard to tell the difference , but the plater says Nickel is much more durable , so now I,m wondering if it would be worth my while getting the Zinc kit as well as its only an extra $50.00 dollars AU  , but I need to no what is Zinced from the factory......Cheers

[esometisse]

what make and model is the bike you intend to do the plating for? There is no general rule as to what is nickel or what is zinc plated on a bike. It depends a good deal on the year of manufacture, too.
So if you give more details I'm sure the experts will be able to advise you.

Cheers
Andy

[Sludgetrap]

Thanks Esometisse

As with most guys here I have a few projects on the go , so I,II list the ones I have started and the ones that I have to get started
1970 T110C,,,1970 Tr6C,,,1967 BSA B44 shooting star ,,,1972 BSA B50 Gold Star,,,1972 650 T120R Bonny  Ones that I still have to start are 1934 Triumph 2/1,,,1980 FLH Harley,,,and 1976 XLCH Sporty 19 ,,, 1948 ES2 Norton 500 single,,,my wife says I have to many bikes ,,,cheers

[netbikes]

I have a Jane Kit for zinc, I do have the nickle chemicals too but have not used them yet. The kit works very well on Japanese bikes as I think, no actually I am sure they are much more consistent with the metals they use in the bolts. You can see some of my results with the kit below and more at  at http://auction.netbikes.com.au/vjmw.php?dir=zxr750h1&page=zxr750_h1 .

I am not so sure about using the kit on British bikes though, I am doing a BSA A10 at the mo and I think every bolt used is made from a different metal mix. I noticed the poor quality finish from the very first batch I did, it came out grey , kind of like Cad which was ok with me but the next lot came out patchy grey and i had to redo them, that is go through the whole prep process again but on the third try the kit simply didn't work at all, the mix was contaminated to who knows what.
So in my experience the results  can be very hit and miss.
So much in fact I have opted to replace as many of the cycle threads as possible with new ones. It has saved me a lot of time and frustration.

[R]

The ES2 Norton used almost entirely satin chromed nuts bolts and bits, with a few chromed ones, so neither kit will work here if you want original.

Lightly bead blasted stainless will more or less duplicate this, but many of them were the factory special shapes, so not available off the shelf anyway.

Hope this helps.

[Gromit]

Ah well now then ......

What you may think is zinc plated and passivated i.e. grey dull coating, on any bike still with original fixings I would bet a pound to a penny if it is before 1965 ish it is cadmium plated.
Cad plate is far superior to zinc for stopping corrosion and about equal to nickel plating, but it comes at a cost to the poor buggers who worked in the plating shops ....cadmium is 10x worse for you than lead.

Incidentally all plated "bright" parts were bright nickel before 1930's when chrome came in as a more durable finish to coat the nickel in ... it hardens the surface but is effectively a clear coating of a few microns to bring the shine out on the nickel.

One tip from my esteemed mechanical engineering work colleagues is "No stainless in structural locations" it is a bit like cheese and has low yield strength so will break if stressed well before high tensile steel ... all bolts should be grade 8.8 (shown by an 8 or 8.8 on the head.) for suspension or load bearing applications. Also stainless work hardens like brass and copper and goes brittle very easily ... try drilling it ... you get so far and it hardens up.

More info than you wanted I suspect ... never mind it 's free !!

Regards Gromit

[Welsh Wizard]

The ES2 Norton used almost entirely satin chromed nuts bolts and bits, with a few chromed ones, so neither kit will work here if you want original.

Lightly bead blasted stainless will more or less duplicate this, but many of them were the factory special shapes, so not available off the shelf anyway.

Hope this helps.

Don't forget that after the war there was a shortage of chrome, so for a time it was not used, and in some cases nickel only was used instead of paint to give it the higher quality look., mainly during the early 50's and late 40's if memory serves me correctly.

[R]

Certainly Nortons (and others) stopped using chrome on the tanks and wheel rims for a while in the early 1950s - they had to reduce their chrome use by 70% was it - but they NEVER stopped using satin-chrome on all the nuts bolts and small fittings. And the exhausts and handlebars and fittings were all still chromed, as usual.

Anyone know when Nortons, under new management (AMC) stopped using satin chrome ?  By the Commando era, it was zinc and cad.

[R]

Incidentally all plated "bright" parts were bright nickel before 1930's when chrome came in as a more durable finish to coat the nickel in ... it hardens the surface but is effectively a clear coating of a few microns to bring the shine out on the nickel.

Regards Gromit

Plated chrome is MOST CERTAINLY NOT a clear coating.
Plated chrome is a bright shiny silvery metal.
And can be applied in thicks coats if desired - although this is VERY expensive.

Nickel plate has a slight yellowish look to it.
Chrome plate has a bluish look to it.
Although these days there are different versions of chrome - trivalent, hexavalent, and hard chrome. And satin chrome (or dull chrome).

A lot of British manufacturers (and some foreign ones) for some years applied chrome to bare steel - and very good chrome it was too. Thickly applied, and then polished back smooth, it can be very long lasting. Its thick enough to be waterproof.

These days, a thin coating of chrome over a thicker coating of nickel gives good corrosion properties (the nickel is waterproof, if thick enough) and the chrome is the shiny bluish layer over it. Which corrodes very little, and easily polished with wax etc, which also further waterproofs it.

Opethiselps.

[Sludgetrap]

G,day,,,

Well bought both diy kits (Nickel and Zinc) had a play this weekend just gone and pretty impressed,, Nickel was a satin finish straight out of the bath,, but buffed up like chrome ,, found that I could vairy the finish on the Zinc stuff by adding more or less brighteners ,, but also found that you have to have a really good surface to start with or the plating brings out any little scratches and marks,, but pretty happy ,, now just have to work out what gets Zinced and what gets nickeled on both the 1934 2/1 and the 1970 Tiger, ,, any advise welcomed..