jusplainwacky

Frank...John is referring to bolts in post #28..not parts. There is a big difference between parts and bolts when it comes to plating. This is why I said to you that annealing is not very important in all cases. I plated my accelerator rod. To anneal this would be a waste of my time and electric bill.

I don't speak for John but he also stated it's typically not an issue for low stress conditions, which is points out such as hood latches...which I agree with.

It should be noted also that Wilbur was just practicing with the bolt...just like I practiced with a nut....which I threw out afterwards cause I studied this while in engineering and new better to use it.

JohnZ

Bolts used in hard-makeup joints (metal-to-metal) that are torqued to specification (just short of yield) are under tremendous tensile stress just sitting there, and those are the applications that require fasteners that are zinc-plated to also be annealed.

I still remember walking the overhead trim line at the Brampton, Ontario assembly plant between shifts when we launched the 1992 cab-forward "LH" cars (Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Premier, Chrysler LHS, etc.), and suddenly we heard loud "pops" and the sound of ricochets off the floor in the main aisle - it was like small-arms fire. Turned out to be a batch of 8mm hex flange head self-tapping screws used on fuel and brake line clamps where they attached to the underbody rails - a glitch in the bolt supplier's quality assurance system allowed a batch to bypass the annealing process and go directly to packaging, and it only took them about an hour after installation in our plant to start fracturing. We had to quarantine a whole day's production and remove/replace all the clamp bolts on about 700 cars.

That's why zinc-plated bolts are annealed, and alternator brackets aren't.

John McGraw

I have some plating that I have done over 10 years ago that still looks very nice. By it's very nature, zinc or cad plating is a sacrificial coating, but my cars do not sit out in the weather, so they hold up pretty good.



Regards, John McGraw

jusplainwacky

Can you imagine if this happened today??? They would have cleared the building and sent in a bomb squad....I'm cracking up, but I think even back then it would have caused me to hit the floor. That's a trip!

SJW

This thread has gone from being very informative to also being amusing!

Thanks to all contributors.

Live well,

SJW

jusplainwacky

I'm glad you found it interesting and amusing.

There is one thing that should be mentioned about hydrogen embrittlement...this isn't just an issue with Zinc platting...it's an issue with all platting that requires "pickling". It's the pickling process that creates this side effect.

jusplainwacky

After years of use, I am happy to report that the zinc plating I put on, looks as good as the day I did it.

Duck916

Thanks for the update and for reviving this thread. It was a great read. Fun to hear from a few departed members here whose contributions were always so helpful.

corvetteguy69

what a great idea, I recently did this to my roof to stop the moss from growing back but I scraped the moss off first using the tool from https://roofscraper.co.uk/ it was pretty expensive but was the only company I could find that sold roof cleaning tools that weren't pressure washers as I did not want to be shooting water into my attic. hopefully the zinc will work I guess we will see with time

jusplainwacky

It's still looks like the same since the day I did it. Has held up great. No rusting.

65air_coupe

I've used that with their zinc plating setup and yes, they do come out much brighter but it gets used up pretty quickly so subsequent pieces aren't so bright. I never considered 'polishing' with 000 steel wool, might have to try that if I did more parts. All those I did 15-20 years ago are still looking good.

dmaxx3500

after plating,use a satin clear spray paint

65air_coupe

I did powder coat some in clear and that also worked out okay.

jusplainwacky

Just an update...7/2/2023.

The parts I have plated still look great!

silver837

Nice to talk to you at the show last week

Tom