Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

[Gerard F.]

While I was disassembling the carb, I thought I heat up my zinc and dichromate plating system and finish all the small parts as I took them off.
I had just gotten some pure zinc anodes and wanted to try them out on my older Caswell plating system.

The results came out almost looking like jewelry:



I mixed a few little black phosphated parts in with the setup today as well as some of the potmetal, such as ,the secondary diapragm housing.
There are parts from other carbs in the photo, but it is always nice to have extra parts

Got some nice slotted head screws off this carb, you don't see them any more:



Here's my workhorse for plating prep:



I use various nylon and fine steel wheels to bring the parts to the proper finish prior to plating or dichromating. It should be noted that the potmetal parts (sec diaphragm housing above, the main body, and fuel bowls) are not zinc plated. They are just brought to a bright fresh potmetal finish, and then dipped in the dichromate for about 20-30 seconds. This gives them the gold irridescent finish, rather than the bright gold if they were zinc plated. I use the nylon wheel or bead blasting on the potmetal parts.

Here's part of my "Frankenstein" plating setup.



The jugs keep growing and growing.

Next weekend. hopefully we will address the main body planing, finishing and coloring, and then reassembly. Just ran out of time this weekend.

But having fun,

[Jim S.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry ,

It looks like a profesional Plating shop in there , right up until the time you show your buffing equiptment !!!

Great looking outcome !

JIm

[Steven S.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Wow, cool! This looks like something I'd like to try myself sometime. Any tips on how to get started?

Steve

[Dale S.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

I cant wait for the next installment. It is looking good. dale

[Roger W.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Don't let the EPA here you say "profesional plating shop".

[Ridge K.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry, the parts look great!
Thanks for sharing that with us.

Here's a pic of my original '67 427 carburetors after restoration by Holley's Custom shop. Di-chromate plating very similar to yours.
Ridge

[Wayne B.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

I love the way the Crok Pots give it that "down home" feel

[Gerard F.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

I love the way the Crok Pots give it that "down home" feel

Now if you really want a few laughs, I just reorganized and cleaned up my plating setup today:



Do I have enough jugs.

For those of you interested in plating, the jugs on top of the workbench to the right are the pickling solutions used to prep the parts. the two jugs and crockpot in the center are the zinc plating tank, and dichromate dip tank with the SP decreaser(Caswell) in the center crockpot, which is the basic plating system. The SP Degreaser is the last step for a prepared part prior to the plating tank.

To the left on the work bench is my gray or black phosphate crockpot and a crockpot for hot TSP. I sometimes use the TSP for degreasing unpickled parts. SP degreaser is similar but it has some buffering and cleaning agents which make it better for plating.

You will see jugs of distilled water and a spray bottle of distilled water. To prevent contamination of solutions, and to preserve the solution in individual tanks, all parts are sprayed with distilled water back in the tank they came from, prior to moving the part to another tank.

The blue solution on the floor is a jug of Baking Soda solution, I use for buffing after pickling, and in case I get any of this nasty stuff gets on my hands or face. The rest of the jugs under the bench are just spare jugs some with other plating or cleaning solutions. I actually use a lot of Simple Green for initial degreasing and cleaning.

The hair dryer is used on dichromated parts, it brings out the red and greens on a dichromated part. And of course, there's my hometown buffing machine for parts prep. I also have a beadblasting setup used for potmetal parts not in the picture.

It might look kind of jury rigged and Bubba-ish, but it works. And boy, am I having fun

[Dale S.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry, You never case to amaze me. Dale

[Dennis C.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry,

What voltage & amperage settings do you use for your zinc plating operation?

Have you ever had to fill in holes or make repairs before plating? Do you have any suggestions as to what filler material to use?

Thanks,

Dennis

[Gerard F.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry,

What voltage & amperage settings do you use for your zinc plating operation?

Have you ever had to fill in holes or make repairs before plating? Do you have any suggestions as to what filler material to use?

Thanks,

Dennis

Dennis

I have (0- 5) amp (0-8) volts variable power supply which is adequate for most small parts. I usually don't worry about the amps as it varies with the size of the parts. I initially set the volts at 1 volt then crank up the amps to get a effervescence or bubbling on the part then adjust the amps down, and volts up to leave a slight effervescence on the part. The amps will seek its own level. Usually I'm plating at about 1.25 volts. Sometimes I go up to 1.5 volts on larger heavier parts.

I'm using heavy zinc ingots with an older Caswell plating mix. The secret to having the parts come out bright is to use the Zinc Brightener, even though it only lasts one or two plating sessions. When the parts start coming out dull, add more Zinc Brightener.

I haven't had to fill any holes or make repairs with my plating. But I understand that there are some special solders and fillers out there that will take plating, or dichromate on the pot metal. If you can fill the hole with copper, and grind or beadblast it to match the adjacent finish, it will probably plate very nicely with zinc.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

You definitely have to keep your plating lab going, Jerry...it will take a dump truck load of baking soda and a couple of weeks to neutralize all that stuff.

[Michael B.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry,

Don't ever go the the drug store asking for large quanities of Sudafed. If the feds show up they aren't even going to ask, they'll just cart you off to jail.

Looks great from here though.

[Dennis C.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Dennis

I have (0- 5) amp (0-8) volts variable power supply which is adequate for most small parts. I usually don't worry about the amps as it varies with the size of the parts. I initially set the volts at 1 volt then crank up the amps to get a effervescence or bubbling on the part then adjust the amps down, and volts up to leave a slight effervescence on the part. The amps will seek its own level. Usually I'm plating at about 1.25 volts. Sometimes I go up to 1.5 volts on larger heavier parts.

I'm using heavy zinc ingots with an older Caswell plating mix. The secret to having the parts come out bright is to use the Zinc Brightener, even though it only lasts one or two plating sessions. When the parts start coming out dull, add more Zinc Brightener.

I haven't had to fill any holes or make repairs with my plating. But I understand that there are some special solders and fillers out there that will take plating, or dichromate on the pot metal. If you can fill the hole with copper, and grind or beadblast it to match the adjacent finish, it will probably plate very nicely with zinc.

Jerry,

Thanks for the information, it was a help.

Dennis

[Joseph W.]

Re: Holley Carb Restoration-Part 3-Plating small parts

Jerry -

Are there manuals on getting started for this type of plating? Your posts are very interesting and I would like to know more about how to do the process, where to get materials and costs.