Do Your Own Electroplating - It's So Easy.

[ceejay]

The plating knowledge available today and the special DIY electroplating kits available on the market allow the restoration rebuild enthusiast to do high quality plating in the home workshop. Bright zinc plating, gold zinc passivating, nickel plating can all be easily done by the DIY person.

The images below are some old elan parts, (Door hinge bobbin lock nuts & special washers & some other parts) which have been bright zinc plated, the old parts were as rusty as hell, but they were cleaned up with a multi-tool belt linishing machine fitted to the bench grinder, the scotchbrite belt was used to prepare the surface of the metal. But as you can see, you can?t get rid of the old corrosion marks, so for best results new metal is the way to go for best results and a high quality plating finish.

By doing your own plating you could save many hundreds of dollars, not to mention the time saved by doing all of this work your self. The time taken to plate these small parts was less than one hour, the plating system is quick to set up, and you can continue doing other things while the plating bath is operating. The plating set up requires only a small amount of bench top space.

For chrome plating I would leave that to the experts, but bright zinc plating is really simple to do, and inexpensive, the chemicals and anodes last for many months. The chemicals supplied in the kits are also quite safe to use and are no more dangerous or toxic than most household chemical products.

Now you can hit the google search to find a kit supplier not far from you.
Good luck.

Col.
http://www.elantrikbits.com
Australia.

[richard sprint]

Ceejay

You have acheived a great finish - I bought a small diy kit in the UK from 'frosts' but the finish was not up to much and returned it for a refund -would be happy to try again with a better piece of equipment which did you use?

Richard

[ceejay]

A company here in Australia called Jane Kits supplied everything, the plating kits range in size from two litres up to ten litres.
Link: http://www.janekits.com.au/mainframe.php And I have no connection with this company other than I will endorse the
quality of the kit.
Plating can be a tricky business if you are plating "old" metal, and just like painting, the base preparation (I.E. nice bright metal, and very clean metal) is incredibly important, get that wrong and you wont get the results you are looking for. The first time we did the plating I was more than impressed.
I have a gazillion washers, screws, nuts & bolts & small brackets to bright zinc on the elan, the great thing about it is that you don't have to go visit your plater, you do it all in your own workshop... but I would use the commercial plater to do the Chrome plating.
Good luck
Col.
PS.
One of the best tools I have in my workshop for metal prep is the Multi tool fitted with a scotchbrite belt: See Here:
http://www2.blackwoods.com.au/infoBANKP ... &P=2022941
Again no company connection - just using this page as illustration. The tool costs about $200.00AU, but worth every dollar in time saved on metal finishing.

[Frank Howard]

One of the best tools I have in my workshop for metal prep is the Multi tool fitted with a scotchbrite belt:

I live near the world headquarters of 3M, maker of practically anything with the word "scotch" in it (except for whiskey). Is there some advantage that I'm not aware of to using this tool rather than using a wire wheel?

[elans3]

Chaps, be very careful when Bright Zinc Plating, particularly any fasteners that you would not wish to break........... That means wheelstuds, suspension bolts, key engine fasteners, etc.
Zinc plating of fasteners can lead to Hydrogen Embrittlement of the material they are made of. see link
https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bits ... t-2004.pdf

Now I'm no metallurgist, but worked for a tractor company 20 years ago, and someone made the mistake of de rusting and in house plating some wheelstuds.
I can clearly remember walking past parked new tractors waiting to be delivered, and hearing "pings".
The pinging was the wheelstuds and nuts breaking off , and we had to retrofit the whole batch of tractors with new wheelstuds, thus delaying delivery.
This phenomenon turned out to be hydrogen embrittlement, caused by the electroplating process.
I've come across this several more times in the intervening years, and all I'm saying is be very careful, particularly as the home kits may not be easy to control, (plating times etc)
elanS3

[ceejay]

Naturally, anything done in the home workshop is under the control of the operator, the main thing is to "read" thoroughly through the procedure before you begin. The plating kit baths do not use hot plating methods, but can be used "warm" .
Of course it is always best to plate "New" metal for best results. Personally, I would not be bothered plating wheel studs as they are hidden anyway out of sight most of the time, but for bolts, washers, screws & nuts etc in the engine bay and other areas of the elan, what better sight is there than nice bright plated parts... and there is no shortage of elans around that could do with some new bright work here and there... mine included.
Col.

[richard sprint]

Out of preference I would always opt for fitting new bolts and nuts (especially nylocs), the low cost of these and the time taken to replate them seems a done deal.

Its the washers (especially the thick ones on the Lotus) that are hard to find and the various mounting plates where sending to the platers is a risky affair to quality of plating and whether they become lost!

Some of the components are impossible to find like headlamp spring bushes (and the springs), the spacers on the engine block (though would be simple to make new) the boot lock and door catch plates, the cable brackets for the bonnet opening cable, the washer bag hook, the headlamp bowls and fixings, door hinges, boot spring catch, bonnet spring to name but a few.

Also there is something good about giving each of the original components a new shiny life as opposed to discarding and buying new...

Richard

[richard sprint]

Ceejay

In terms of cleaning and preparation I would opt each time to put the component through the shot blast cabinet being time effecient and aneal the component for the next stage or have I missed something?

[ceejay]

Bead blasting wont give the desired surface prep for good plating results...But OK if you want to paint or powder coat. The bead blasting would most likely give a satin finish, and if you are happy with that, well and good.

[richard sprint]

Ceejay

You are providing me with information I had not considered in that I would not bead blast as a final finish, only that it would remove rust efficiently (as opposed to chemical removal) and then move onto plating? If you are saying that such prep would not be effective as a key? I would be interested to learn...

Thanks

Richard

[ceejay]

Richard.
Bead blasting will definitely remove the rust and if the metal is clean the plating will cover the rust damaged metal,
but the problem is that the finish (over the rust) is terrible to look at, you need a smooth surface (Such as a scotchbrite belt will produce) for good plating, it is really quite straightforward.
There is an excellent book on electrolplating aimed at the small volume volume plater (DIY). It is simply titled "Electroplating".
By J Poyner. Number 11 in the Workshop Practice Series. Argus Books Ltd UK. ISBN 0 85242 862 6. The book contains about 60 pages of solid info on the art of electroplating. But not sure if it is still in print, if not, try Amazon for used item.
Col.

[richard sprint]

Ceejay

I see what you mean - to avoid the rough pitted surface.

I will ty to find that book and many thanks...

Richard