Not Enough to do, how about some Plating and Carb work? (1 Viewer)

[GatorPlater]

So, as I have a couple of these trucks I am working on, the 1973 and a 1970 I picked up for my son (which he keeps saying he wants to start the build thread). I decided to delve into the black art of restoring the finish on various parts as the cost to buy new or send parts out is both stupid expensive and runs the risk of morons losing parts for you.

After researching and watching about 800 hours of videos, I have figured out that no one tells you the true secret of a nice shiny plate. So in order to allow anyone who might decide to also do this, I wont tell you the secret either, dont want to spoil you.

My setup is the Caswell CopyCad system. I currently am running a 1.5 Gallon setup for the plater, but am upgrading to a 3 gallon system to do larger pieces. I also have the Yellow Chromate finish, the Blue Chromate finish, The Black Oxide Finish and a Stainless Steel blackener. I did not do the Caswell Kit as it was pretty expensive, but instead used their refill chemicals to get more bang for my buck. I am using a Chinese Linear Power Supply, 0-30V DC, 0-30Amps. it can do constant voltage or constant Amperage (secret is amperage per surface area)

Anyhow, I have been doing a bunch of test pieces and started an actual production piece which is a full Carb restoration and rebuild. Complete breakdown of all parts, Hot Tank, Soda Blast, Re-Plate all parts in Zinc and depending on part, either Zinc blue or Yellow Chromate.

All Parts are finished and plated, currently doing the re-assembly and initial setup of carb using the Toyota Rebuild Manual.

Initial pics of Carb:

 

[GatorPlater]

Breaking down the carb

 

[GatorPlater]

Soda Blasting parts. I keep parts separated by carb layer on plates, label as needed, but took a ton of pics for reference

 

[GatorPlater]

Parts Getting Plated

I plated the base which is actually iron.

The middle carb body and Air Horn are both cast zinc. So hot tank and polish is what I did for those 2 pieces.

 

[GatorPlater]

Everything strung up. I let all parts bake for 24hrs to harden the Cad conversion coating. I also figured out in my test runs that I needed to blow parts off with compressed air after the get the Cad dip. this removed any still wet coating and keeps runs from happening which actually removed the cad and leaves a white zinc spot.

I also Black oxided the base plate to match OEM, but it has a nice layer of zinc under that coating. I applied the sealer product to the surface and blew out all the passages in the base before hanging it to dry.

 

[GatorPlater]

And here we are as of this afternoon. semi organized the parts on my large table and started assembly. I finished the air horn and started on the throttle body. The rebuild kit looks pretty good, came with new jets and slow jets, so those will be installed. Also replacing the foam/plastic float with a brass float.

And funny, not funny story, when I was removing the power jet, I could not get it to come loose, would not go further in and would not turn. eventually got it out, but found the filter, which should be in the fuel inlet jammed in the hole with the spring. Spring had punched a hole in the filter and it was wedged in, keeping the power piston from working. I polished the power piston, looks a lot like an m14 gas piston. Moves perfect now.

 

[merbesfield]

A true carburetor Wizard.

 

[greenbeasty]

I can't even imagine that level of detail!

 

[GatorPlater]

Brass Float swapped in:

Venturis and Jets installed. A high altitude jet was installed in primary, swapped that for a nice sea level jet:

Ran into a little gasket issue. Main body gasket is off by a few mm in a few different directions. main spine, some of the pass through holes are covered, screw holes dont quite line up.

I have a few kits from another manufacturer, perfect fit. We will be using theirs

 

[GatorPlater]

Linkages being re-attached

Baseplate shafts and plates put in, screws run in and staked.

A Little Dry Fitting, have to fix some stripped screw holes in the morning, then should be wrapping it up

 

[merbesfield]

All I can continue to say is Wow! Amazing work.

 

[red66toy]

Fantastic work so far!

 

[GatorPlater]

Wrapped it up today, had to retap the high speed valve shaft, a mechanic has tried to take out the screws and stripped not only the screws, but threads in the shaft. Tapped it for M3x.5 and put in new screws and staked.

Final Assembly, used the better gasket and also used the correct leather cup accelerator pump. Will do final adjustments to set up the butterflies, choke and idle screws and get owner will bolt it on.

 

[GatorPlater]

Some Before and After Pics, side by side

This is the next Spa Guest, out of my 70 project. I had used the accellerator pump linkage as a test piece for plating. PO had spread the parts out in 6 different boxes. I need the counterweight and the pin for the float. Those were the only parts missing. I also got the rebuilt kit for the Weber the PO had put on the truck, going to rebuild it and sell it or keep it as a spare.

Here are a couple of other Plates pieces:

And yes, if you are thinking about it, I can replate parts for you. I haven't finished my basket setup quite yet, but just received a second round of chems so I can run a 3 gallon tank and do larger pieces.

 

[merbesfield]

That carb may be too pretty to put on my Patina Queen.