Nuts and Bolts

[yenpit]

43 minutes ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Did you clean it first? My plater can't remove paint, but any amount of rust on the hardware dissolves in his vat. So painted stuff I have to either chemically strip or blast first.

 

Go buy a big can (coffee?) with a soft lid, drill a bunch of small holes in the bottom & around bottom 1/3 or 1/2 of can, cut an X or a round hole that fits your sandblasting gun!  Use GLASS BEAD only or lesser aggressive...........not aluminum oxide, sand or any of the aggressive media!  Aggressive media leaves a rougher surface, so re-plating looks dull, not shiny.  I fill up with a handful only of screws nuts & bolts.  As you blast, shake can vigorously, about 3-5min per can.  You can also do small brackets etc, as long as they move around easily as you blast.  When done, anything with "crap" still on it, either hand blast or toss (unless it is a much needed hardware!).  We do $300-500 loads at a time!  One can will last a number of blasting cycles, but the can WILL eventually get blasted away itself!

[obrut]

I would media blast everything in my cabinet.  I have a strainer that I put the bolts in and as I blast them I shake the strainer.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Blasting alters the finished plating. If it is blasted then the finish is not as shiny. I prefer to get the paint off without blasting.

[obrut]

8 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Blasting alters the finished plating. If it is blasted then the finish is not as shiny. I prefer to get the paint off without blasting.

Taking the paint off without blasting would be best for the finish.  This is the first time I sent out a batch of parts to get plated.  It is definitely worth saving old hardware and sending it out to plate instead of buying new sometimes questionable hardware.

[a.d._510_n_ok]

I needed a bunch of JFK era FoMoCo stuff for my '60 Ranchero and really didn't want to pull all of it off cars in salvage yards myself. Some dude on ePay is selling original hardware for like $20 a pound. I bought a baggie of it last week and it's already saved me so much time. Some of you Datsun parts hoarders might could make a $ or $$ doing the same.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

52 minutes ago, a.d._510_n_ok said:

I needed a bunch of JFK era FoMoCo stuff for my '60 Ranchero and really didn't want to pull all of it off cars in salvage yards myself. Some dude on ePay is selling original hardware for like $20 a pound. I bought a baggie of it last week and it's already saved me so much time. Some of you Datsun parts hoarders might could make a $ or $$ doing the same.

Not a bad idea.

 

2 hours ago, obrut said:

Taking the paint off without blasting would be best for the finish.  This is the first time I sent out a batch of parts to get plated.  It is definitely worth saving old hardware and sending it out to plate instead of buying new sometimes questionable hardware.

My dad just bought a vapor blaster and I'm excited to try it, for this very reason. I think it is also gentle enough to clean plated parts but not disturb the plating itself. I'm going to try that soon.

[iceman510]

I also started looking into vapor blasting.  Looks pretty cool if I can convert my cabinet.  Not sure I want to spend for a complete new one.

[iceman510]

On 3/13/2023 at 11:06 PM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Blasting alters the finished plating. If it is blasted then the finish is not as shiny. I prefer to get the paint off without blasting.

 

How about if you hit them with the wire wheel for a little bit of buffing?  I have done that for some brackets for the plain metal shine, then clear coat.  I can't remember if I did that for any of the zinc plated parts I did a couple summers ago.  I'll have to try that since a few of the were somewhat dull when I got them back.

 

[Ooph!]

I've been taking mine to the machine shop and running them through the industrial washing machine, they come out fairly clean. I can imagine an old home unit may perform well.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Both good ideas.

 

I do run the painted parts through the ultrasonic cleaner, but sometimes the paint is just too stubborn.

 

Hitting them with a wire wheel...why did I never think of that. For bolts, it's very time consuming, and I have made a set of threaded mandrels (for nuts and bolts) that stays in the drill so I don't have to release the chuck over and over again.

[thisismatt]

Let them soak in a pot of super clean followed by a pot of phosphoric acid (can usually be found easily as concrete etch)

[yenpit]

On 3/13/2023 at 9:06 PM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Blasting alters the finished plating. If it is blasted then the finish is not as shiny. I prefer to get the paint off without blasting.

 

We use the less aggressive glassbead, could probably go with an even lesser aggressive..............but as long as the part is not pitted from oxidation, it comes out shiny!  If you use more aggressive ie aluminum oxide, it WILL be dull.  Try it!! 😎

[yenpit]

On 3/16/2023 at 1:39 PM, iceman510 said:

 

How about if you hit them with the wire wheel for a little bit of buffing?  I have done that for some brackets for the plain metal shine, then clear coat.  I can't remember if I did that for any of the zinc plated parts I did a couple summers ago.  I'll have to try that since a few of the were somewhat dull when I got them back.

 

 

There are some parts that I have NEVER been able to re-plate shiny..........I think the 240Z heatshields, the L16 heat riser tube & some of the intake/carb heatshields (but not every one....?).  I believe with those, it is what metal they originally used, or the "coating"........maybe galvanized..........??

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I've tried soaking in chemicals, even paint stripper, but there is always some paint residue that won't come off without mechanical or hands on work.

 

I did make up some blasting racks for bolts. They are strips of aluminum threaded for various bolt threads. Yes, they took a while to make, but I cheated and used a drill to tap them. They do make blasting hardware a ton easier.

 

I also have a motorized rotating basket attachment for my blasting cabinet made specifically for small hardware, but it's less than perfect.

 

These suggestions you guys are giving do work, but I am looking for a set-it-and-forget-it solution that takes fewer man hours. I do know that there is a chemical stripper that platers use to remove paint. Not aircraft paint stripper, but something waaaay more caustic, and I really doubt I can get it, nor would I use it if I could. They outlawed it in many states, or so I'm told by my plater.

[iceman510]

Always the balance between effectiveness vs. time spent.  I don't do huge volumes of stuff so I can spend a bit more time blasting hardware.  I do need a better method like a basket or the coffee can idea too.  I use glass bead normally.

[yenpit]

4 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

I've tried soaking in chemicals, even paint stripper, but there is always some paint residue that won't come off without mechanical or hands on work.

 

I did make up some blasting racks for bolts. They are strips of aluminum threaded for various bolt threads. Yes, they took a while to make, but I cheated and used a drill to tap them. They do make blasting hardware a ton easier.

 

I also have a motorized rotating basket attachment for my blasting cabinet made specifically for small hardware, but it's less than perfect.

 

These suggestions you guys are giving do work, but I am looking for a set-it-and-forget-it solution that takes fewer man hours. I do know that there is a chemical stripper that platers use to remove paint. Not aircraft paint stripper, but something waaaay more caustic, and I really doubt I can get it, nor would I use it if I could. They outlawed it in many states, or so I'm told by my plater.

 

Our last batch of Z hardware, we have a cabinet for hardware, but we tried a chemical dip at our media blaster.  That was a 50% good thing.  They got 90% of the hardware clean, leaving some paint & undercoating, but then they rinsed it all with something that FLASH OXIDIZED all of it, so we had to media blast all of it in our cabinet anyway................but our blasting process labor time WAS cut in half, cuz it was a lot cleaner than before!  That said, we paid for the chemical dip, but our in house labor time WAS less.  I don't know if the boss will do that again...............