Rover Bling - diy zinc plating

[mepham55]

Found some info on the web about zinc plating and decided to give it a try. Not too hard to set up, the liquid bath is just vinegar and Epsom salts. For the anodes I used a roll of zinc roofing material that’s sold at big box stores for keeping moss off your roof. The power is supplied from essentially a battery charger. The one I have is a little more adjustable but most 2amp chargers would work. The parts come out a dull grey so a little buff with some steel wool makes them shiny. Here’s my first attempts.

Matt

[terayon]

Found some info on the web about zinc plating and decided to give it a try. Not too hard to set up, the liquid bath is just vinegar and Epsom salts. For the anodes I used a roll of zinc roofing material that’s sold at big box stores for keeping moss off your roof. The power is supplied from essentially a battery charger. The one I have is a little more adjustable but most 2amp chargers would work. The parts come out a dull grey so a little buff with some steel wool makes them shiny. Here’s my first attempts.

Matt

Awesome! Very well done!

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

[rezdiver]

Matt,

I believe if you add sugar to the solution it will come out brighter.

Cheers,
Reza

[RamblerRob]

Is the top picture a after/before shot or is the right side how it looks before bugging?

[mepham55]

Is the top picture a after/before shot or is the right side how it looks before bugging?

That’s a comparison of a plated part and an original, untouched part. Before buffing the plated parts look like they’ve been sprayed with grey primer.

Matt

[swamijake]

looks great!

[oldgravy]

That's really cool, Matt.

[The_Anachronist]

Nice!

[StuartL]

Well done Matt, you are the master!!! You can expect just a small box of bits arriving from the lower mainland shortly...

[Glenn D.]

Nice work Matt. Do you have a link to some more online info?

[mepham55]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. Once you have the system set up its surprisingly quick and easy to plate things, much faster than painting parts. Another tip I can pass along is the part your plating needs to be really clean or the plating won’t cover well. I have been degreasing then sandblasting the parts and that works pretty well but some parts are still hard to get clean. I’m now using phosphoric acid after cleaning the part and that seems to help clean the hard to reach areas. I’ve also tried muriatic acid which really strips the part clean but if there’s any remaining oils on the piece it will still show up when plating. I just looked online for diy zinc plating and there is a ton of info out there. I based my system mostly on this set up here:

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthre ... -and-Bolts

Matt