Can anyone recommend someone to strip and re-plate body bolts and other fasteners for a full restoration? What do most folks do for a full blown "nut and bolt" restoration job? I have hardware to spare and would like to take care of this early in the process.

Also, anyone use Mike Mancini for dash restoration, or other smaller stuff?

Thanks

Ed

Mike did my Dash and gauges on my 71 Duster 340. It turned out great. Seemed to have great customer service. I would use them again. I restored my own dash frame using his paint. See Ya!

Look in your local yellow pages. I'm sure there is a plater near you. I dip my fasteners in muriatic acid. It will remove the rust as well as any left over zinc. Rince with backing soda water to neutralise the acid. You can pay the platers to clean up the fasteners for you but it won't be cheap.

The plating company will have a flat fee for barrel plating. I'm pretty sure you can have all the fasteners for the entire car zinc plated for one base fee. There will probably be an extra charge for any zinc dichromate because that involves dipping the parts in another solution.

There are also companies that can do phosphate coatings too. Just look in the yellow pages.

I use either Eric (member 3404 on here) or Neil at dynamic renovation for plating parts.

Bill do you refinish All mounting hardware like fender and trunk bolts,washers, clips, things that will be painted over?

some of the hdw is avail new and already plated correctly so you may spend less overall just getting new stuff when you consider the cost of labor these days. Lots of OEM fasteners will be pitted after stripping and this pitting will show when the fastener is replated. I have used Dynamic Renovation as stated in the above post for fast turnaround and great service. Most painted (body )fasteners I toss in a pail of paint stripper and wire brush then dust with etch primer. AMK Products is one of the sources I use for replacement fasteners.

On my 70 Challenger - I found AMK to be almost 95% correct replacement for the original bolts (including head markings)...

I unfortunately learned about them after I dropped my 5 gallon bucket of nuts and bolts off at the platter. If I was to do another car, I would go the AMK route again... It took me almost a week to reorganize the 5 gallon bucket into small zip lock bags and I still ended up with a handful of bolts that I haven't figured out what they go for.

Good info thank you all. I have alot of hardware in good condition, so I hate to toss away. Have some repop stuff, some original I'd like to save and re-use. The painted stuff especially.

Kind of have an interest in the whole fastener ID thing just as a side hobby. Bought the fastener book Wise put out. Not that my car is going to be concours, just like some of this for fun.

I took my car apart 15 years ago. Every nut and bolt was thrown into a big tub. NOT the right way to do it. The fastener guide really came in handy in my situation. I spent more time sorting the fasteners then I did installing them.

When I had my fasteners plated, the base fee was only $40. That would have done every zinc fastener for the entire car. If you miss a fastener or two you are SOL though.

Wow, that's incredible, I have more than $40 in making a rectifier to control the current for electro deposited plating. The big plus for me is flexibility of finishes and convieniance.

Before tossing all of your fasteners in a bucket to get plated, take the time to document each one. I take a pic of each, along with markings on the head, with a Ziploc bag with the description written clearly on it. I also weigh each fastner on a digital scale and log it in my note book. It does take time, but when you get everything back it will be much easier to sort things out.

You will also have to separate which fastners will be zinc clear, black and yellow (gold) as they will barrel tumble each separately.

CAC

For you folks that are plating/coating your own hardware at home would you be willing to share photos of the process or the stuff needed to do it yourself? I have a few bags of hardware I would like to restore myself over the next few weeks while I wait on parts.

You didn't mention what type of plating you want to replicate.

Zinc Phosphate can be pretty basic but electro-deposited zinc with a multitude of chromate conversion coats choices can be involved and pricey to set up.

Probably just zinc phosphate for now, I believe that was the original coating on the front lower valence pan clips and bolts. Not really looking for an accurate resto just want the hardware to be clean and not have to worry about rust for awhile.

Phosphating comes with 2 options, Zinc and Manganese, both of these produce varying levels of gray to almost black (depending on the concentrate, age of bath, length of time in solution, and base material). The biggest difference between the two is level of porosity at the microstructure level and depth of color. Automotive hardware is generally Zinc while many Guns use manganese. Zinc also makes a good base for painted surfaces or can be oiled (sealed) for a nice grey finish. As an alternative to oil I use a water soluble sealer available from Caswell plating. The sealer can be left natural for a beautiful zinc finish or painted over at a later date.

Phosphating will require stainless steel or porcelain pot, bowl . . . , needs to be heated to approx 180-200 and you'll need to season the bath prior to first use (1 time only as long as you continue to use a portion of your previously seasoned bath for future jobs). This is easily accomplished with iron filings, or shavings and a coffee filter.

Phosphating can be accomplished by the average home user pretty easily for minimal investment. The process is horribly convenient when doing a restoration and can be easily stored in plastic containers for long periods, making it easy to use at a later date to freshen up details. I tend to refinish even brand new hardware if it doesn't have a good finish.

Hardware prep can vary but in general I blast mine first and will often hit it with a wire wheel to get a nice finish prior to plating. The exception is if I intend to paint it then you may elect to skip the wire polish. I suggest you try the process both ways and make an informed decision what works best for your needs.

Zinc phosphate is not a great corrosion protector and the reason you may receive new parts in a box with corrosion. It's ability to deter corrosion is largely reliant on the oil or sealer placed on the porous surface. Though its outstanding compared to black oxide.

I purchased Zinc phosphate from Brownells (yes, the gun company). Remember your buying concentrate, the pint bottle will make gallons of parkerizing Zinc phosphate solution.

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-...g-prod1106.aspx

I don't recommend performing the process in your home, a garage is the better location, buy an old stove or electric portable burner.

For comparison, U-nuts prior to refinishing
Pay no attention to the fender washers (Electro-depposited Zinc) as this is another lesson

And here are the results you may expect to achieve.

Thanks so much for that write up! It's funny I was going to start with the Ubolts for my front valence pan. Thanks again for the help