Home Cadmium Plating

[gwsut]

It has always been my opinion that its the little things really make the difference in a restoration. Things like washers, body shims, special nuts and bolts, and generally little parts that were originally cadmium plated stand out when you have really worked hard to have a great restoration. Sending out or taking a lot of small parts to a plating shop, which for me is over an hour away, is a PIA. Plus the platter hates it when you show up with a box full of "trinkets and do-dads" and you almost always forget something and have to go back several times. So my question is, has anybody used one of the home plating kits? How well do they work? Or a method you had good luck with to finish small parts. Any recommendation? I would not think it would be that hard of a job since you don't have to polish and coat with nickel or copper. Thanks. Gary

[Fleet58]

you might want to look into the Eastwood kit, i hear it's pretty good and easy to use...

[1project2many]

Real Cadmium plating, at least the industrial version, uses highly toxic chemicals. The home kits seek to duplicate the look of Cad without Cad. How good the results are usually depends on the effort applied by the plater. I have seen home cad plating that looks remarkably good. You wouldn't realize it's not the real deal.

Plating requires clean and properly prepped base metals. If you need a shiny or smooth finish then the piece you're plating must be polished before plating. If you have pits, scars, or uglies that are visible in the base metal then they must be addressed or they will be present in the plated metal. So I think you'll find there's a time investment there that more than equals two trips to and from the plating shop. I don't know what you've looked at but I've had great luck using Cadwell Plating's kits.

[gwsut]

Yes, I was / am looking at the Cadwell Kits. And you're right, preparation of anything is 9/10s of any project! Thanks for your opinions. Gary

[olBlue]

I used the Cadwell "Copy Cad" kit and built this wet bench to work on.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/968443...57659810839839

[1project2many]

Nice bench. Generally my setups tend to generate "mad scientist at work" comments. Right now I'm trying to locate an inexpensive container to nickel plate some old bumpers. I'm thinking I might line a box with a heavy plastic sheet to get the job done.

[roger55]

I thought about and researched it before but I came to the conclusion it's just best to buy new nuts, bolts and washers. Cheap when you buy them by the pound from tractor supply.
There are also many online suppliers for specialty bolts and they are quite reasonable in price too.

I found nice captured-washer bolts for the inner fenders on ebay here.



Some larger items I just blast and paint with Duplicolor ceramic engine enamel I get from O'Reillys. That's what I did here with the original hood hinges. That paint is high quality.

[ptc]

I thought that "restoration" meant to 'replace old with new'.... not just clean up old crap and put lipstick on a pig..... thats why they cost so much right?

So to me as a customer of a "Ground up Restoration" my expectation would be that I would be getting a finished vehicle (lets say a 57 chevy) that was stripped of all components and systems, the body and frame blasted or dip stripped, and then repaired or replaced back to original and made ready for reassembly. Then all NEW OEM components and systems (I mean every nut bolt, washer, screw, lamp, wire, connector) installed back onto that body/frame so that it was basically a NEW 2016 - 1957 era car/truck. And ready for another 200,000 miles.

Otherwise its NOT a restoration.... its a very thorough "detailing of the car"

And I would pay $100,000 for it obviously..... for a resale value car of maybe $50K and one I could of purchased in 1957 for $2700....

[roger55]

Originally Posted by ptc

...
Otherwise its NOT a restoration.... its a very thorough "detailing of the car"

It's a restomod.

[Shady Rascal]

I'm into restoration of motorcycles. I tried the home stuff and it is a poor substitute. It was a lot of labor to get a result that was sub-par to true commercial zinc plating. A commercial shop will do much better work and soooo much cheaper than buying new.

Here is what you get with commercial plating priced at $1.00 per pound. You can't buy new for that price.







Why try and buy new stuff when replating original is stupid cheap ? If you want good results you got to use good ingredients.

(linkages and springs replated. These parts are obsolete and cannot be bought new)


(Hinges and latch stuff replated.)

[Clay54]

So Shady Rascal, did you get that done in downtown Weatherford or did you drive it/ship it to Ft.Worth/Dallas? Clay

[Shady Rascal]

Fort Worth. Right off I35.
Posted via Mobile Device

[1project2many]

Originally Posted by ptc

I thought that "restoration" meant to 'replace old with new'.... not just clean up old crap and put lipstick on a pig..... thats why they cost so much right?

So to me as a customer of a "Ground up Restoration" my expectation would be that I would be getting a finished vehicle (lets say a 57 chevy) that was stripped of all components and systems, the body and frame blasted or dip stripped, and then repaired or replaced back to original and made ready for reassembly. Then all NEW OEM components and systems (I mean every nut bolt, washer, screw, lamp, wire, connector) installed back onto that body/frame so that it was basically a NEW 2016 - 1957 era car/truck. And ready for another 200,000 miles.

Otherwise its NOT a restoration.... its a very thorough "detailing of the car"

And I would pay $100,000 for it obviously..... for a resale value car of maybe $50K and one I could of purchased in 1957 for $2700....

Hmmm.... I was going to reply to the sarcasm but I'm thinking there's more going on here than just what's in this thread?