Zinc Plating
Turbo Mini Forums

Hey guys,

I thought id have a go at zinc plating as in the not too distant future i'm sure ill be wanting to plate parts to go on the car and i made some panel clamps and didn't want to paint them.


(Clamps before plating)

I looked into the kits and couldn't justify spending £60 just to have a go and i found that most the equipment needed i had at work. Before i start this is the most basic form of zinc plating, there are more complex methods using a series of different fluids, but i wanted to see what the results were like for the most simplistic method.



Equipment used:
Power supply with current adjustment
Copper wire
Plastic tub/bucket (depending on size of part)
Power supply to anode wire/connectors

Materials used:
Zinc sulphate (brought from ebay £4.10)
Pure Zinc (as close to pure zinc as possible)
De-ionized water (i used about 500ml)

I used scrap Zinc (huge thanks to Pete/nutter driver for supplying me with enough free zinc to plate a body shell) in thin block form, ideally sheet form is better to line the tub with.

I can't stress enough how important it is that the part is clean, no rust, paint, grease or shit. Best to attack the part if possible with a brass wire wheel than clean with a degreaser. Also if the part has been previously plated to get a good finish it would be best to remove the previous plating as it would have most likely deteriorated over the years.

Step 1.
Mixed the zinc sulphate and de-ionized water together in the tub/bucket. I used 3 teaspoons of zinc sulphate with 500ml of water. This ratio seemed to work ok.

Step 2.
Line the tub/bucket with zinc, the zinc becomes the anode.

Step 3.
Connect each anode together with the copper wire



Step 4.
The part in which you want plating will become the cathode, suspend the part from above the tub using copper wire.

Step 5.
Submerse the part into the water solution. Ensure the part is completely submersed. Id allow about 10mm atleast between the water level and top of the part ensuring the zinc can flow completely around the part.

Step 6.
Connect the positive supply to the anode/zinc and the negative to the part/cathode.

Step 7.
I did a few practice runs with some scrap steel and found that 300mA was a suitable current level. i wouldn't go above 400mA or the zinc with rapidly form on the part, go a black colour and then crumble off. Good plating looks just like its been sprayed with primer a light grey colour (see picture below). You should see it start plating within a few seconds of turning the power supply on.



Step 8.
The longer you leave it the thicker the plating will be come. The spade liking part of the clamp i left for 20 mins and the box section part i left for 30 mins. Just have a play about and see what your most happy with.

Step 9.
After you've left it for a suitable amount of time, turn the power supply off and remove the part. Dry it well and then brush over it lightly with a brass brush. This will reveal a bright plated surface.

Like with powder coating the zinc needs a direct path to the cathode, this is a bit of a problem when you want to plate inside something like the bore of the box section. to get around this problem i placed an anode with in the bore



This is the end result, sorry about the crap pictures they were taken on my phone. You can't tell from the pictures but the plating has given the surface a nice shiny finish and you can also feel the texture of the steel has become smoother. For my first attempt im happy with the results, time will tell how successful the plating has been.




Chris

Edited by Tom Fenton on 17th Oct, 2011.

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER

Good info, I'm doing some restoration on one of my 205's and have been looking for an electroplaters locally without much success, so I may look into a bit of DIY.

Do it Tom its so easy and cheap

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER

nice write up mate!! looks like some brilliant results as well!!

And on the 7th day........... God created turbochargers!

Cheers Pete, thanks again for the zinc, just out of interest what were you casting in the bits you gave me, some interesting shapes

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER

not casting mate, spraying, through a metco 10E gun, simmilar to this video (not me, in fact not even the same kit, but the principle is the same!), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_QrrVWet4M

We were spraying the indside of some small plastic boxes, fiddly job, i fucking hate it..... havent had to do any for almost a year, which must mean that its almost due again..... yay....... :(

Its a long running job done for probably the biggest employer in the country, the zinc is used to sheild the rf signal from the switches (that go inside the little boxes) from being picked up by undesirables aparently.... all i know, is processing them makes my thumbs hurt, and covers my clothes in zinc dust.........

We zinc spray loads of stuff, but when i was rummaging through the scrap bin, i saw those and thought they might be close enough to sheet to be used as are.... looks like it worked pretty well!!

And on the 7th day........... God created turbochargers!

Any chance of some more offcuts/scrap zinc heading this way? Happy to make a donation to the tea/biscuits fund etc?

Tom you can have some of my off cuts if you want Pete sent me far more then ill need

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER

That is interesting, I've been looking for a way to restore plated parts for a while as I got half way through doing the carbs for my Cooper and didn't know what to do with the rusty linkages. I will have to give something like this a try.

Nice work mate!

Im wondering whether it would work ok for master cylinders?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

excellent results there

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Looks like a good result there the finish looks good. I have used the Gateros kit to do the bright zinc and the passivated yellow zinc on various bits of me car and they came out like factory parts-was very impressed with it, more or less the identical process except they insist on and acid pickle between degreasing and plating.

ta

oli

On 5th Oct, 2014 Shauna said:
What that's crazy, you go commando hahaha! How heavy is your helmet ?

Hi Oli,

I went over the parts with a wire wheel then soaked them in phosphoric acid before plating them

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER

Just a quick update, i wanted to check how good the plating was to resisting corrosion, so i left the parts out side on the window sill last night (very wet night) and from the picture you can see the zinc oxide forming, but no rust. I'll leave them out probably for the rest of the week to get a better idea.

Edited by longy on 18th Oct, 2011.

1972 998 TURBO SLEEPER