dalei989

Re: electro galavanizing vs hot dip ????

Hi I just signed up with your group. I am a restoring a vehicle and have finishing questions. I live on the west coast of british columbia, own a small automotive repair business. Restoring a 1971 Dodge Dart and some of the parts on this car were finished in what the car forum guys are telling me is a electro galvanizing process. I have had no luck in finding a company that does this process on small parts, I have less than fifteen pieces weighing aprox. 50 lbs. I can get them hot dip galvanized but am told the finish will be no wear near electro plating. I found a company that does bright zinc plating but am told this is different as well. I ordered a eastwood tin zinc plating kit but am told this will not work as well. What is your opinion? thanks Dale

Dedalus

Re: electro galavanizing vs hot dip ????

"Electrogalvanizing" is zinc plating. I am not what you would call a "car guy", but isn't there some original specification from when cars of that vintage were made? There is likely some kind of ASTM code number in it that will tell you the thickness of zinc that they required to be applied on that type of part, and the chromate coating (that's almost always put over zinc plate) that was specified.

Or, you could just "wing it", and take it to that plating shop you found, and have them put a good thick layer of electroplated zinc on your parts, with a gold chromate on top.

A (hopefully inoffensive) word about plating shops: many are a bit leery of taking "special" jobs from members of the general public. It has happened in my career as a chemist that some people who are not very educated about metal finishing are not altogether certain what they want, and I wound up doing a lot of work on something, and having to refund their money and see them go away grumbling.

Also, if these parts are die castings, reworking them is notoriously tricky and they can easily wind up coming out looking like crap.

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