The next thing I decided to tackle is my plating kit. I got it off ebay and it works but I have had a few issues with weird rough patches in the zinc plating and yellow chromate that just rubs off.
I resolved the chromate issue as it turned out I’m dipping it for too long so I just dip for 3 seconds now and repeat for a darker yellow if desired.
The issues with the finish of the zinc I put down to current control so I decided to do a few upgrades.
This is the zinc anode arrangement as it came with the kit
I ordered some thick copper wire to build a rack to hold the anodes with some croc clips for easy removal.
Much easier and now I can just plate what I need as I go along as it takes seconds to set the tank up.
The kit came with a very crude variable resister to limit the current and I have been using it with a 12v battery charger.
I replaced it with a cheap but very useful power supply and now the kit if working very well. I just take the lids off the various buckets, mount the rack and anodes and I’m ready to go.
Now that it was all set up correctly I decided to do some of the carb parts I had been putting off. They came out quite good. Especially the choke lever.
I had also been mulling over a solution for some of the chromed bits. The brake pedal is in excellent condition except for a scrape on one side. I have read that zinc wont stick to chrome so I theorized that I could plate zinc over the damaged area and then clear chromate and it should only stick where the chrome was missing.
This is the damaged area
The rest of the pedal looks good
I filed and sanded the dodgy parts and prepared them to plate
Then after plating and chromate this is the result. The zinc seems to have stuck to the chrome too. I’m guessing it will rub or flake off at some point but it should stay stuck on the damaged parts. Who knows.
I tried the same trick on the kickstart mount and it had the same effect. This part was missing a lot of chrome but it looks acceptable now. We will see how long it lasts.
The kickstart lever got the same treatment after a lot of wire brushing. I dont have any pics after plating but I have left it outside in the weather to see what happens. I will leave it for a few weeks.
