Zinc plating

[Albion]

Time for some more experiments! Thanks Glyn for the links, really helpful. Many people share experiences on the net and the most common issue among them seems to be brightness. This may sound funny, but after some good reading I decided to add fructose and vanilla to my electrolyte. What the heck, am I a chemist?! Funnily enough, I think it did make a difference, so tomorrow I will add further more.

This time I kept it in the electrolyte for an hour at a temperature of around 21deg

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Notice the stain underneath bracket. That area was not cleaned by wire brush. It only shows on pic though.

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[Glyn Ruck]

Yes ~ cleaning is crucial. On brackets like that we gave them a light sand blast prior to sending for plating.

[Albion]

A friend of mine who does industrial plating such as chrome etc, just told me to add some powder gelatine to electrolyte for brightness. Will give it a try as well.

[Glyn Ruck]

Interesting ~ this seems to be a bit of a black art. Everybody has their own little twist to the chemical brew.

I think one has to be practical. There are items that are mainly hidden & you just want to stop future corrosion. Then there are visible items like the door locks that you want to look decent.

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[Albion]

Hi, an update following various attempts at zinc plating. There were instances where results obtained were quite satisfactory, but it was always an attempt and experimenting without guaranteeing success. So I just got tired of trying. Still, it has to be done, and as previously said there are far too many bits as you go along. So, I bought a readily made kit with suitable electrolyte and equipment which should do the trick. Unfortunately because of health hazard they can't supply yellowchromate, so such parts I will have to commission them. Also, I also got a sand blasting cabinet because of the many parts to be zinc plated or painted.

[NigelW]

Word of advice on the blast cabinet - don't use sand, major health hazzard! Get hold of glass beads from someone like Guyson or Frost.

https://www.guyson.co.uk/aftersales/guy ... last-media

I've just cleaned up the outside of the XJ sump in mine to great effect using Guyson products.

[cass3958]

Bicarbonate soda is another good medium to use.

[Orlando St.R]

I've just cleaned up the outside of the XJ sump in mine to great effect using Guyson products.

That looks good, Nigel.

[NigelW]

Thanks, it was a real mess! Cleaning up the cylinder head at the moment - another dirty job.

[cass3958]

In your photo Nigel you can clearly see the small bowl I talked about in a previous topic about cleaning the engine. That little bowl to the right sits at the front of the engine and is not drained when you pull the sump plug. It contains about a litre of dirty oil which will remain in the engine when you complete your oil change.