I believe the correct finish is a gray phosphate coating. Does anyone have a line on a good shop for redoing the hinges? Or a way of replicating the approximate look and texture with paint? I know I read something about utilizing a spray paint and shooting the final coat as a mist froma distance, but can't find. It might have been in the thread I started on Firewall Forward Finishes, but I think that whole thread must be nuked as I can't find it using a search. Anyone have some info? Thanks in advance.
hinge finish Ken, Try this link...click on "plating services" link http://www.brakeboosters.com/services.htm Also, Eastwoods sells a paint that looks real close. I have used it as a final spritz over a known high quality paint to good success. I put it on while the base paint is still alittle tacky. Matt
Ken, Funny you should mention it.. I just finished up a run on mag phosphated hinges.. just a "trial run" with my vendor and figuring the time required to blast, press tighten, and then have them phosphated. I will be doing a run of these this fall/winter. Costs go like this. For blasting/tightening on a set of hinges, with springs - $70.00 Mag Phosphate coating- $55 per set. So if you unbolt them from the car, and have me do the works, it's $125 for the pair of hinges and springs. I broke down the pricing since I know alot of you have your own blasting equipment. Never seen a hinge that did not need to be press tightened. Developed a process to do that, without marking the hinges up. Press tightening and coating only will go for $75.00, if you do your own blasting. If you blast and don't want them tightened, it's $55.00 Minimum quanity for me to do this is 5 sets. Plan on doing this around the Dec/January time period, turn around time will be 30-60 days. I will do these earlier if I get 5 sets in sooner.. I currently have two sets in process. We also do the disc brake backing plates ($50), hood latch release mechanism and and rods.($45) I do have one spare set on the shelf, cost is $125 exchange, or $200 outright. JW
We are the proud owners of a set redone including the coating by Dr Weise and can attest to their quailty.
I'm in for having a set of hinges done. I'll be curious to see if you think they need to be tightened. Heck, how many times have they really been worked on a car that sat for 20+ years! But I'll leave that up to your expert opinion, of course. You already did my hood latch for me, but I'd be interested in sending backing plates to you. That's done in a clear zinc, correct? I also would like to send my proporting valve bracket and my caliper brackets for cad plating. They're all in good shape rust wise, just need refinishing. You have my coil bracket there in one of the boxes I sent. Perhaps that can be included if you're doing a zinc run? Thanks Jim!
Jim- Attached is a pic of one of my backing plates that I just blasted. The darker areas are where the original plating wore through to base metal. Should I blast all of the original plating off? Or is this sufficient? I assume your vendor must do an acid dip prior to plating. If not, I'll blast the rest off. I also thought it would be neat to show what an original looked like having lines approximately 1 inch apart of what was probably thicker coating. This appears on the inside of the plate only and not on the spot welded on ring. Hmmm... wonder what in the mfg process caused that?
Ken Since ours has some pits a bought a new repo pair on sale for $52.00 plus shipping from OPG. Also the tabs that bend to serve as lockers will break if you do not watch it. One of mine did so new was in order. I just clear coated them.
Jim- I thought about going the OPG route per your suggestion, but mine are in good shape (no pits) so I figured I'd keep the originals and just put the work into them to get them ready for new zinc. Darn original zinc is stubborn to get off with a media blaster, but I'll take my time. And yes, I went really easy on the tabs. I have to say, Jim, the pics you posted recently of your X really got me inspired. I pretty much worked all weekend on mine after seeing how far you've gotten.. Your car is really coming along nice! Thanks for the inspiration. :TU:
Ken Sometimes we had to make a tough decision about saving some things. Items like the brake booster, the valve cover hold downs, suspension hardware, idler arm, center link, tie rods, ball joints , bushings, calipers , etc had to be retired in lieu of new stuff. We hope to have the springs in and the car back on the ground in a week or two.
Jim, I understand what you're talking about with those decisions. My car had never even had a front end alignment, so everything is original. I've bought all new steering and suspension components too. I plan to put as much of the original marks on the new parts prior to installation. I'm also keeping everything that's coming off the car for future reference. I had started a thread sometime back where I listed various finishes and markings and many people, yourself and TimR included, had responded with some great info and pics. Unfortunately, that's all been nuked by the stupid hackers. Glad to hear you're almost ready to put her back on the ground. That will be a big milestone for you.
Ken I have a hard copy of much of that thread. I also have made a lot of discoveries that may be of interest. For example, on the rag joint. If you take it apart you will see evidence of how it once looked. The pinch bolts are a cast gold color. Just take a brass brush and clean them after degreasing and you will see what I mean. They are not black or zinc cad as you might think would be the likely colors.
Never fear, I think all the older stuff is in the archive http://www.v8buick.com/archive/index.php/ It's archived to make the website faster to load and if I'm not mistaken easier to recall if it does get nuked again.
I see the thread titles there, but it looks like when you click a link to a thread pre-site nuking there's no info. Hopefully, it can be restored at some point in the future. Thanks for the heads up, Karl.
I'm sure you're right Karl. I imagine Mike and Jim were set back by the hack job and it'll take some time to get it all back working. Thanks again for the pointer. Jim Lore- As you mentioned above, I did see that slight gold cast on the pinch bolts. Did you reproduce that on yours? I was looking at the picture you posted recently in this thread of your steering box and it's hard to tell if you added color to those bolts or not.
