Wanted FOUND! Bolts and screws for LV resto (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jan 27, 2018
Threads
39
Messages
540
Location
Wrightsville Beach, NC
Location
United States
Update: Thanks @Tank5 for the he M8 flat head #5! Still interested in '60s era bolts, screws, etc. with some life left in them. Will take any size and different numbered heads. Any that I don't use will be plated and passed along to MUD members who need them. Thanks.
I've officially crossed over to the LV origonal/resto dark side! Deciding to restore and electro-plate all my original hardware put me over the edge. Presently trying to locate a M8x32mm fuel pump bolt - see pics - with #5 on non-indented head. Would love to bundle this with a a coffee can full of LV hardware, so if you're holding let me know. I've discovered that most of the bolts on my LV do not have the indented head, but I'm not sure if this is an "early" thing or an "LV" thing (if you know please share). Happy to plate some hardware for you in exchange. Thanks

1898328
1898329
1898330
1898331
 
Last edited:
Sure. I purchased a kit from Caswell Plating. I bought the 4.5 gallon Copy Cad & Zinc plating kit - for the parts I'm doing I could definitely have gotten by with the 3 gallon and maybe even the 1.5. If you go to the Caswell website just type in Copy Cad and it will bring the kits up for you to compare. The kits are called "Copy Cad" because it comes with an additive that gives the zinc plating a brighter look and more in keeping with old school cadmium plating. Personally I find I can get the zinc nice and shinny without it.

Probably easiest if I explain the kit and my setup using the above photo. The four buckets that are elevated contain the fluids you'll use when plating. The four buckets sitting on the ground are rinse buckets for each step in the process. In the bucket at the far left is a degreaser solution supplied by Caswell. Next is the bucket containing the plating solution and the zinc plates, both supplied as part of the Caswell kit. The third bucket is a 5% solution of muriatic acid. Caswell doesn't provide the muriatic acid, but easily found at the hardware store. The acid dip is sorta optional - some platers do, some don't. I like it because it brightens the zinc and removes any little impurities that may have clung to your plated part before you dip the part in the chromate. The forth bucket is the chromate. You purchase that separately and have a choice between yellow, clear/blue, olive or black. There are a few videos on Youtube using the Caswell system, so definitely check them out.

In addition to the kit you will need to buy 3 bucket heaters. I found them on eBay. The degreaser is to be heated to 175. The plating solution to 110 and the chromate to 90. I bought a cheap windshield sun shield and wrapped the buckets - made a huge difference in retaining heat. You'll also need to have a power source. I bought a 10 amp power supply but lots of folks use a 6 volt battery or even four D cells. Get your self a respirator to protect your lungs from all the airborne rust that comes with cleaning old parts and a magnifying visor so you can see, and therefore clean, every little speck. Oh, and a Dremel with lots of wire brush attachments!

After 3 months of doing this here's what I've learned. Plating is a lot of work. You will understand why they charge what they charge after doing this. About 95% of the work is the prep required before you plate. Getting a 50 year old part, caked with grease on one side and rusty on the other, to the point that it will plate well takes time. That said, I find it very rewarding. Its a great feeling to look back on an afternoon's work and see your original, numbered head, JIS hardware looking as shinny as the day it was installed! It's also really convenient, especially for small jobs. Say you want to restore an old set of elephant ear horns. Your simply take the horns apart, clean the parts, plate, let dry over night and put it back together while you still remember how it came apart. That's a lot better than sending them off to a plater, being charged a premium for a small order, waiting 3 weeks for the return of, fingers crossed, all of your parts and then trying to remember what goes where.

Hope this helps. Ask any questions you may have and I'll be glad to answer if I know.

Take care, Don
 
Nope, but that's a promising idea. In my experience rust removal is time consuming and you can be fooled into thinking it's all gone when it's not - a wire wheel will make rust shine just as bright as bare steel! Everything looks good until you go to plate and the zinc doesn't stick to polished rust any better than normal rust. If I encounter rust now and it doesn't come off with light wire wheeling, I brush a Dremel grinder disk over it just enough to get to clean metal, hit it with the wire wheel to smooth things out, and plate away.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom