Nickel plating screws?

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Jul 30, 2005 | 07:00 AM

Techno

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Drifting

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From: 68 427 4.11s Roadster

Nickel plating screws?

Do you know if this wil help prevent them bonding into the unplated female parts?
Have to put everything together and considering plating all the fasteners, or at least the heads.

Jul 30, 2005 | 07:05 AM

Twin_Turbo

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I have plated all my fasteners (and then some..I have buckets and buckets full of plated nuts, botls, springs and other stuff) and there's nothing that you can keep them from rusting together apart from using anti seize, I use copper paste on almost all fasteners.

Jul 30, 2005 | 09:06 AM

Techno

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Drifting

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From: 68 427 4.11s Roadster

So nickel and steel will still rust together?

How do you plate the screws, hang them or put em in a bucket?

Jul 30, 2005 | 09:11 AM

KenSny

Melting Slicks

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From: Olmsted Falls, Ohio

If you are really worried about them galling or rusting try Stainless Steel bolts and nuts. Not as quick to rust and look very nice with chrome parts.

If you chrome them yourself, the thread clearance between the nut and bolt will change due to the additional thickness of the plating material. Do not use them if you need to apply a torque spec as it will be off.

Jul 30, 2005 | 09:26 AM

Twin_Turbo

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no nickel and steel won't rust together, nothing rusts together if you mean they physically bond, the problem with rust is that it "expands" the metal, just like water freezing to ice and this is what seizes stuff, combined w/ the rough surface it makes it very ahrd to remove botls. Nickel plating is nice for corrosion resistance but the nickel plating also oxidizes and it's not a guarantee that it woin't keep things from getting really stuck.

Stainless steel fasteners..now there's something I don't trust at all for structural fasteners...I will never use stainless I'll take plated ordinary grade 8s over stainless any day.
Chroming can cause hydrogen embrittlement, however the plating process can cause that also.

Jul 30, 2005 | 09:30 AM

Twin_Turbo

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I plated them by dumping them off at the plating company, it's relativly cheap and they do a great job every time so I figured why emss with it myself (even though I could probably pull it off cheaply and easily) when they get such excellent results..

Here's a couple of examples of stuff they did for me:

and that's the yellow stuff, the blue (silver) is jsut as nice.

Jul 30, 2005 | 09:11 PM

Michel B

Burning Brakes

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From: Ville de la Baie Quebec. A winner is just a loser who tried again.

Actually corrosion is provoked in different ways, and putting two different metals together is one of them, its call galvanic corrosion, or dissimillar metal corrosion. When dissimilar bolts or other fastners are put together with a source of moisture a galvanic couple forms, one of the metals becomes the anode and corrodes faster, the other metal becomes a cathode and corrodes slower. This is very evident when you put non-ferrous and ferrous metals together, and is valid for all metals.
I just thought of throwing in this info as a friendly gesture, I realise we are not talking about planes, but its informative.

Jul 30, 2005 | 09:37 PM

BBShark

Drifting

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From: VetteMOD

St. Jude Donor '05-'07

Stainless bolts and nuts are a good choice if your concern is corrosion. HOWEVER, if you use stainless bolts and nuts, use plenty of anti sieze compond. Sometimes, stainless on stailnless will gaul (lock together) immediately and removal requires cutting.

Last edited by BBShark; Jul 30, 2005 at 09:41 PM.