Galvanize original bolts

michipons

michipons

Hero member
Location
Palma de Mallorca
Hi all,

After a short and fast evolution in the Laverda world, I have learned the importance of keeping the original bolts if you have them. Is part of the ?signature? of the bike, there is no way I have all orginal bolts in the bike and I substitute them for SS bolts (nono)

The tripple I am restoring now has actually all of them original, I think I didn?t find a single one that it wasn?t. However all of them have already this almost black colour, it is no rust but I don?t know, a mixture of grease and degraded zinc I guess.

I have been investigating a lot about home zinc process, I was quite convinced but then when I ordered the kit from a UK supplier, they replied that they can?t ship by sea due to dangerous goods (I live in an island), tried already several providers, always the same issue, I have been trying to find friends who travel from the continent with the car, but with the actual situation, nobody is travelling :-[ And I can?t stop the restoration until they build a bridge of 200km from Spain to Mallorca.

Long story short. To whom I can send a box full of bolts to galvanize? I say galvanize instead of zinc, because as far as I have read, galvanizing is a much better process to coat a metal with zinc, which is appropriate for heavy duty bolts. Zinc plating is with electrolisis and galvanizing, the piece is submerged in a bath of liquid zinc at ca.500 degrees, making a thicker coat of Zinc and welded to the bolt itself. (At least I have understood it this way)

Thank you,
Miguel
 
Miguel,

If you have the fasteners zinc dipped, you may as well throw them in the scrap straight away and save your money.  At a guess, I'd say not a single nut and bolt will fit anymore.  The process is more suitable for garden gates, hand rails, steel construction beams, etc.  The finish is also generally quite dull, very like a bolt that has sat in place on a bike for 10 or more years...

Electro zinc plating is the industry standard for fasteners.  If done properly, all fasteners will remain perfectly usable.  One plater I used in the past thought it a good idea to double up the plating (maybe he just forgot to take them out of the tub in time), I had massive thread problems with that batch. 

As you get around and about Europe quite bit, there's an excellent plater quite near Cologne airport.  He has a turnaround time of about a week for batches of around 5 kg.

Cadmium has been outlawed in the EU for quite some time.

piet
 
sfcpiet said:
Miguel,

If you have the fasteners zinc dipped, you may as well throw them in the scrap straight away and save your money.  At a guess, I'd say not a single nut and bolt will fit anymore.  The process is more suitable for garden gates, hand rails, steel construction beams, etc.  The finish is also generally quite dull, very like a bolt that has sat in place on a bike for 10 or more years...

Electro zinc plating is the industry standard for fasteners.  If done properly, all fasteners will remain perfectly usable.  One plater I used in the past thought it a good idea to double up the plating (maybe he just forgot to take them out of the tub in time), I had massive thread problems with that batch. 

As you get around and about Europe quite bit, there's an excellent plater quite near Cologne airport.  He has a turnaround time of about a week for batches of around 5 kg.

Cadmium has been outlawed in the EU for quite some time.

piet
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Hi Piet!

That is why I love this forum, there are always a few of you looking carefully that nobody does a big crap :LOL:

Thank you very much for your advice. Unfortunately now I am not leaving my island since very long time (kurzarbeit) but hope to start soon again. However I am constantly sending boxes around Europe full of ?crap?. Do you think I could send a box with bolts to him? Does it need to be 5 kg? I think I need another 3 Laverdas for that... I may have 2 or 3 kg in total.

If you don?t want to write his contact to the publicum, you could maybe email it to me, I am happy to call him and speak with him (in german) or write him, whatever you recommend.

Miguel
 
I always save all the original fasteners including the nuts and washers and have them bright zinc plated (very similar in appearance tp cadmium)

Laverda SF1 parts



I am fortunate to have an industrial plater that specializes in the oil industry in town, same shop Wolfgang Haerter uses on his restorations; B&H Plating in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.

The key to any fastener restoration is removing all the oils, grease and rust, I use vapour basting for the initial clean and then finish with acid, the cleaner the surface the better the finish. Usual cost is $80 CDN for a big pail of parts, nuts, bolts, washers, spindles, brackets, springs, spokes, etc.....

Guzzi parts



heavy cast Bosch starter motor nose section

 
My SFC frame was cadmium plated in a bathtub, in a garage in a Rome suburb.

The SFC is only 300 km from home now. I can't go and fetch it with a broken ankle.

It's been 4 years since it was burnt.

Paul
 
Always best to prepare the bolts, nuts and washers yourself as the platers won't spend the time to get it just right. Wire brush the lot and bead blast inside the socket head screws. Get it all as clean as you can before going for zinc and it will come out  looking like new. Cheers
Ian
 
Hi all!

I was a bit disconnected last weeks, I was having too much fun plating at home! I bought a kit from "Gateros plating", it works really nice! I really recommend it. I am restoring parts that I thought they were unusable or parts that I was too afraid to send to an industrial plater. It takes some time and you need some experience to get good results, but after couple of days, they look like pro.

Miguel

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It's a bit late but malcolm Cox is your man andy if you prep them then there even cheaper. Great service from the black country.
Regards Andy 😁
 
Malcolm does a great job, sure. But is more fun to plate than prepare a parcel...🤣🤣

Bigfeesh, the website is nice, and I wont lie, it is laborious in the beginning, and is a bit scary to work with chemicals that you can?t pronounce without looking like a kid who just learned reading, but Gateros has also facebook group where they resolve your queries almost on live.

The best of all is the feeling of proudness when you first plate🤤

Miguel
 
michipons said:
<snip>  ...  and is a bit scary to work with chemicals that you can?t pronounce without looking like a kid who just learned reading
Click to expand...

  :D.  Very nicely put. Miguel  (congrats).

But you seem to be getting on pretty well .. (thumbup)

And thanks for posting.
 
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