Fender bolt restoration

[panicman]

Silly. I know.

The midnight vulture came out of me the other night when I noticed that I had almost all of the original fender bolts from my '60 just sitting in a bin, brown and crusty. I had noticed my new hardware in the wheel well days prior, and they just don't look right.

So, I soaked the originals in vinegar, then in muriatic acid, then my brother sandblasted the whole pile for me.

Now I have the itch to put them on. I know that the fender bolts should be for the most part raw metal. But these are blasted, and look very... ready to rust. Is there any treatment I should give them before putting them back on? Of course, I would fill the threads with grease, but what about the heads?

By the way, my bolts turned out to be mostly Knipping, not Kamax. That surprised me.
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[wcfvw69]

Get them zinc plated. They will rust quickly w/out a coating.
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[grandpa pete]

Poke the threads through a piece of cardboard and ospho prime and paint aluminum on the heads...just like the insides of the fenders

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63 two fold rag
66 sedan delivery Type 6

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[jzjames]

Look into motorcycle chain lube and buy a can.
I use the stuff a lot and it's effective at keeping the rust at bay - it's got that "wax oil" or synthetic stuff in it. Something to consider.

[far rider]

Guess everybody's got their methods. I use anti-seize on the threads after Poking them through cardboard to paint the heads as mentioned.
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67 zenith blue sunroof

Contentment; when what you have is what you want.

[61SNRF]

Not sure where to direct you, but once worked where they used to send out the old buckets of nuts and bolts to a local plater who did a "Black Oxide" finish on them.
Of course the finished products only come out as nice as the cores you send them, but the price is very reasonable IIRC.

I think this finish would be a good alternative for fender bolts.

Googled black oxide plating...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_oxide
https://www.google.com/#q=black+oxide+plating
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-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[panicman]

Thanks you guys. I considered Parkerizing, and phosphate treatment. I even thought about clear coat, and I considered paint.

All great ideas, but I think I am going to either get a home galvanizing kit (zinc), or take them to a plater for zinc.
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[bugmandave]

Rustoleum flat black looks just like black oxide which was the original finish.
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'63 Karmann Cabriolet L456 Rubin (Ruby Red)
'71 Westfalia campmobile tourist delivery
January '59 SWR panel
'63 Karmann Cabriolet L54 Poppy Red

[panicman]

I went with black oxide, and oiled. I did a bit of reading, and a black oxide finish most closely matches factory, so it's the winner.

I used Caswell's cold dip black oxide. I dipped and rinsed several times to get to a very dark finish, then dried and oiled them.

Thanks for your ideas!
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[panicman]

I've stored those same bolts now for several years, watching them. The cold oxide finish, along with the oil, preserved them pretty well until I recently dug them up to put them on the car. The moment I touched them, they left orange all over my fingers. They'd started to rust. So- I decided to zinc plate them. I started zinc plating stuff at home a while back and its fun. And cheap and easy!

The basic steps are:
1. Strip any finish off the piece (I use muriatic acid in a glass jar from the pool supply section of an Ace. You can re-use the acid a few times)
2. Clean the piece (I use isopropyl alcohol and wear gloves to prevent contamination)
3. Plate
4. Rinse and polish

If anybody is interested I am happy to go into a step by step, but I'll mostly just show pics of the steps:

Stripped bolts sitting in alcohol until plating:

Small plating station, with most of the supplies:

Clean bolts suspended from copper wire:

Bolts suspended in electrolyte bath between zinc anodes:

Bolts fizzing during plating process, starting to accumulate zinc:

Pulling bolts to assess coverage after disconnecting current:

A finished bolt after polishing with toothpaste, brass brush, and steel wool:

Progress:

Raw bolt, then plated, then polished:

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[bluebus86]

How thick is the film plated on the bolt? maybe get a micrometer read on the hanger wire of unplated verse plated diameters? More details on time, power, electrolight concentration?

Nice idea, Bug On!
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[panicman]

Thanks!

I didn't measure, and honestly I would need to buy a better micrometer to get any accuracy. I am happy to grab a random bolt and plate it after I get a better one.
Here is a bit more detail on how I set everything up.

The bucket I used is an old kitty litter bucket with a handle. I can reposition things to do a bigger object if I ever need to. I ran copper wire around the edge of the bucket to provide positive to my anodes, and pigtailed the positive wires so I could easily attach one lead. Here you can see the positive wire from my power source clipped to that pigtailed lead. You can see the negative wire attached to the copper wire that holds whatever I am plating.

Here I have fished out the 'anode'. You can buy zinc anodes that already have leads at many hardware stores. They are used in evaporative coolers. I opted for ultra-cheap. I saw a rack of solid zinc clothesline pulleys at a nearby dept store- $4.99. I hacksawed the bracket in half, and the halves are my anodes. If they ever get depleted I will cut the zinc pulley wheel in half and use those. I drilled a small hole in the anodes and ran a screw in to each. That is how I attach the copper wire to supply positive current, and suspend the anode in the bucket.

Here is my power supply. I think it was a charger for an outdoor led umbrella light. It is a 3.7v, .35amp power supply. I removed the plug and attached clip leads.

I use 12g copper wire, some of which is stripped bare for hanging the parts.

To hang the parts, I pounded the ends of a copper tube flat to sit across the top of the bucket.

I use a scale that reads in grams and ounces. I measure volume in ounces, cups and quarts.

For the electrolyte bath, I use:
4.75 quarts of clean water
.85 cups white vinegar
Corn syrup (don't use high-fructose), about 5 oz (1/3 of a regular Karo bottle)
300g of Epsom salt
100g zinc sulfate (I used Moss Out from HD)

Stir this with a stick, or you could use a wire whip. Parts of it will form into cakes- just keep breaking it up and stirring.

Drop the anodes into the solution. They will provide the sacrificial metal to plate the parts. Hang or wind your part(s) on the bare copper wire, and hang this wire on the copper tube, making sure your parts are completely submerged. Clip the negative lead to the wire holding the parts to be plated. Clip the positive lead to the pigtail that leads to the anodes. Plug the power in.

Within a minute, the part will start fizzing pretty aggressively. You just wait until there is a heavy bluish-gray coating on the parts. I normally disconnect the power and pull the parts every ten minutes or so. I look for even coverage; most times, there will be a shadowy dark spot here or there, and that part needs to be re-struck. Just readjust the part and plop it back in.

Once you are satisfied the part is plated, rinse or dunk it in water, then scrub it with a brass brush and some common toothpaste and clean water. For a bit of extra shine, you can polish with 0000 steel wool, or you could also tumble them in media.

Doing this many bolts (with breaks for dinner, hanging out with wifey, etc..) it did take about 3-4 hours, and polishing individual bolts gets OLD. But I think the result is worth it, and I have been meaning to do it.

Safety notes!! Do any/all of this at YOUR OWN RISK...

This is easy and cheap, but it can be dangerous.

You are working with electricity. Always make sure everything is disconnected before you go fishing for your part.

If you use the acid to strip your parts be extremely cautious. Muriatic acid will disfigure you, it'll eat concrete, and destroy just about anything it touches. Don't work with it indoors. Don't whiff or breathe the fumes AT ALL. Wear heavy chemical resistant gloves, sturdy clothing. Don't do anything that will cause it to splash. Don't leave parts in it with out watching- it'll eat them completely.

Its more fun to plate larger stuff, but you might need to adjust your power source. So far I think the largest object I have done is an old Bosch coil bracket, and the power source I listed was sufficient.

I think each cluster of bolts took 15-20 minutes total to plate.
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[flyboy161]

I am so doing this! Thank you for a great write up
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[Cusser]

[scrivyscriv]

[splitjunkie]

[wcfvw69]

There's various ways to bright zinc parts at home. Lots of good videos on how to on youtube. I went with Casewell products and bought an adjustable DC power supply.

I like this version of zinc plating as there's no polishing involved. Strip the old zinc, clean the parts and re-zinc plate them. They come out looking factory new.
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[panicman]

Nice! That looks great!
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[wheel607]

cadmium

[Pruneman99]