DIY black phosphate
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 904
Likes: 46
From: Crestline CA
DIY black phosphate
This might be old news but was proud of my self so I decided to post this. So I bought a vibratory cleaner awhile back and it works great. Only problem is that it takes the plating/finish off as well as the dirt/rust.
Wanted to redo the black phosphate finish on the hood latch plate bolts that took a run through the cleaner and talked to a couple of people about doing so. Was given 4 options, 1.have someone do it for you, 2. buy a kit from Caswell plating 3. buy a kit from the local gun shop 4. buy a kit from Radio shack for PC board making. Did a bit more research and found that all these kits are basically just acid.
Decided to try to do it myself with readily household available items. Tried a few things but came up with CLR as the winner. Takes a few soakings with wipe down in between but actually works pretty good. Here is pic of a bolt right out of the cleaner next to one with a CLR black phosphate job.
Wanted to redo the black phosphate finish on the hood latch plate bolts that took a run through the cleaner and talked to a couple of people about doing so. Was given 4 options, 1.have someone do it for you, 2. buy a kit from Caswell plating 3. buy a kit from the local gun shop 4. buy a kit from Radio shack for PC board making. Did a bit more research and found that all these kits are basically just acid.
Decided to try to do it myself with readily household available items. Tried a few things but came up with CLR as the winner. Takes a few soakings with wipe down in between but actually works pretty good. Here is pic of a bolt right out of the cleaner next to one with a CLR black phosphate job.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 904
Likes: 46
From: Crestline CA
Thats probably the bad side of using the CLR, not a very strong acid so takes awhile. This took 24 hours but I think my soak times were way too long. Basically needs to soak for a couple hours them rinse and brush off w/ a tooth brush and repeat. The first time you take it out and rinse it off nearly all of the black comes off, each additional time a little less comes off until nearly nothing comes off. I'll have to try it again but I'd be willing to bet that 3 two hour soaks would give the same results.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 31,278
Likes: 4,372
From: Westminster Maryland
Hi d,
Looks good!
Are you going to try to coat it with anything?
I've found that if you don't protect it in some way the black turns brownish in some areas of the part after a couple of weeks.
Even dipping in with something like WD40 seems to stop that.
Regards,
Alan
Looks good!
Are you going to try to coat it with anything?
I've found that if you don't protect it in some way the black turns brownish in some areas of the part after a couple of weeks.
Even dipping in with something like WD40 seems to stop that.
Regards,
Alan
