67 Hood Catches and Latches

[Kirk M.]

I just had an original pair of hood catches (female parts attached to firewall) re-plated this past week. They came back to me zinc silver, which was quite different than the cad (gray) color of the catches on my car. Didn't realize there was a "plating" choice and clearly should have opted for cad to match my latches (male part on the hood).

Here is my question, were these two parts always "plated" (I realize cad isn't a plating) the same on a given car or where they ever mixed with zinc on one and cad on the other? Not two catches or two latches being different, but the pair of catches and pair of latches being different?

By the way, which preference do you have? I actually like the cad (gray better). To me the zinc looks like a bad chrome job!

Thanks.

Kirk

[William C.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Frankly, never saw a Phosphate plated latch set, only Cad/Zinc (Probably CAD back i n the day)

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Sorry, used the wrong word. You are correct, it should be cad and I have edited the post.

Kirk

[Wayne W.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

If it is a St. Louis body, just spray them black.

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Gotta love the liberal use of overspray. It's an A.O. Smith body.

Kirk

[John H.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Gotta love the liberal use of overspray. It's an A.O. Smith body.

Kirk

Kirk -

The female catches (and the cross-cable) were installed after paint on A.O. Smith bodies.

[Donald T.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

I have replated many C2 hood latches and never ran into cad. Most if not all C2 latches were zinc plated. The springs were painted black and the rest of the hardware is zinc plating. The catches may have blackout overspray for an STL car. For restoration, zinc plating is the only way to go. Cad and zinc plating are virtually indentical in appearance, and cad is very dangerous stuff. Zinc is safer and is the correct finish.

[Gerard F.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

I have replated many C2 hood latches and never ran into cad. Most if not all C2 latches were zinc plated. The springs were painted black and the rest of the hardware is zinc plating. The catches may have blackout overspray for an STL car. For restoration, zinc plating is the only way to go. Cad and zinc plating are virtually indentical in appearance, and cad is very dangerous stuff. Zinc is safer and is the correct finish.

Donald,

I'm going to respectfully disagree. I think a lot of the underhood parts and those parts subject to a corrosive atmosphere on C2's were cad plated, maybe some were optionally zinc plated by the vendor.

Cad is a lot tougher than zinc, very silvery but ages more to a light dull gray. Zinc ages to gray with a white powdery finish. Here's an example of the toughness of cadmium on my 67 male hood latches.

Here they are taken off the car after 39 years:



I started to prep these for zinc plating, but after brushing them out realized that they were plated with something tougher than zinc, more silvery like cadmium brushed out. I was not going to try to put zinc over cad, so I just cleaned them up without plating. Here's the cleanup:



You are right about the spring, it is not black phosphated, it is painted.
I know, as I tried to strip it in muriatic.

Here's a couple of male hood latches from a 65, I did this year in real cad for a friend:





Don't worry Kirk, whether they are cad or zinc, as they age, the shine will turn to gray, but with zinc you might see a little white powder.

What do you think, Jack.

[Robert K.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Jerry,

Would you be willing to share how you cleaned those male hood latches? They look great for original equipment that has not been replated!

Thanks Jerry,

[Gerard F.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Jerry,

Would you be willing to share how you cleaned those male hood latches? They look great for original equipment that has not been replated!

Thanks Jerry,

Robert,

When I received the parts they had been pickled in full strength muriatic acid (pool acid). I would not normally use full strength but that's the way these were done.

Whether they were zinc or cad originally, I'm sure that there was no remnant of the original plating. Muriatic will even take chrome off an original part.

The adjusting screws were removed and done separately:



All parts were then cleaned with a fine wire wheel on a cheap drill mounted in a vise. A finishing touch for shiny parts is a blue nylon wheel.

Then they are stewed in hot Caswell SP degreaser (in a crockpot), flushed off with distilled water, then into the plating tank (I use a 3 gallon jug).

I haven't figured out a good cleaning agent in the plating tank yet , so I plan on post finishing with the wire and nylon wheels.

Did the hood brace too except I had to plate this half at a time as it wouldn't fit into the plating tank:

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Jerry,

Awesome job. Wish I could fire up some plating of my own, but I have been sending mine out. Guess I got the correct zinc plating on the catches and now all I need to do is send out the latches to be re-plated as well and then everything will match. How long does it take for the parts to "gray"?


Kirk

[Ridge K.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Rspectfully, my observations are different than Jerry's. Like Donald, I have restored many 1967 hood latch and catch parts, and what I have seen appears to be zinc plating.
In addition, formerly... I sold NOS Corvette parts for quite a few years. I had in my hands at east fifty sets of NOS latch and catch parts, some of which were from service replacemt purchases in 1967/68, and a few were the older (same) psrts in the old black GM packaging for earlier Chevrolets that used the same parts. On several old NOS parts that were in box storage undisturbed for decades, the plating showed a "white powdery residue" present.
Also, many parts have a slight, faint, "yellowish" cast. According to Mike Caswell of Caswell plating, yellow dichromate playing is a "yellow" wash over... zinc plating.
I am not saving that cad was never used. I'm only saying that I've seen evidence that the parts were zinc plated in both original, and correct era service replacement NOS parts.
Ridge.

[Michael F.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

correct is cad, zinc came later, early ncrs judging guides will state that, only after it seems many started using zinc as cad harder to find did the judging manual change...politically correct change in my opinion

[Robert K.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Jerry,

Thanks very much for sharing the information re: the process you used - what a nice job!

Bob

[Gerard F.]

Re: 67 Hood Catches and Latches

Jerry,

Thanks very much for sharing the information re: the process you used - what a nice job!

Bob

Bob,

I think I got confused over the male and female hood latches

I didn't replate the 67 male latches. Just cleaned them up with Simple Green to get the old grease off, and then brushed them with my workhorse:



I also use this with a fine wire wheel and different size nylon wheels to get into the crevices. Wore this Craftsman drill out and now I use this setup with a cheap Walmart drill.

You would be surprised how well some original parts just clean up in Simple Green and brushing, especially if they were originally cadmium plated.