Parts cleaning

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Tadams

Tadams

Tadams
Joined
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Looks like a rainy week in Carolina. How do I clean parts such as hood and trunk latches. After new paint I hope they can be cleaned well enough to look good.
 
Send them out to the same guy Ulf (and now I) use to get them Cad plated (or in the case of my Dart) gold anodized. With new paint, they will look fantastic!
 
You wrote "latches" but I read "hinges" for some reason. On my Challenger hood latch and safety hook, I soaked them in EvapoRust. Then I darkened them in a black oxide solution. Then I coated them with RPM from ECS Automotive. On my Dart hood latches and safety hook I did the same. On the trunk latch and striker, I sent them out to be replated with the rest of the hardware. If you are going to have the latch replated, it's best to disassemble it first. The replaters use acid to clean the parts before plating. The plating only gets on the outside of the part. The inside will remain bare and will rust.
 
I have a guy that does my plating, cad and nickle and never have I seen it only plated on one side. They are in a tank and get plated everywhere, the only problem is if it has a spring in it than it has to be baked at around 400 F for 24 hrs or the spring will brake from hydrogen embrittlement. The nickle plating is electroless and comes out looking more like chrome.
 
Electro plating is based on line of sight. The zinc won't be deposited on the inside of a part. There are pictures on the net that show the inside of a latch that was plated as a complete assembly. The inside is rusted. The pictures were posted by Jules the Wiperman.(RIP)

EDIT: I found the picture...

7599796-002.JPG
 
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You would have to acid dip them to remove the rust and use electroless nickle or remove the rivets to blast the inside and then have them plated, clear zinc was the original plating for the latches
 
image.jpg
Depending on your pocket book-

Sand blast if you can or just dip them in carb cleaner (1 gal bucket dip type) over night. That will strip them pretty good of grease and oil. Spray them clean with brake cleaner and use the gold or silver rust oleum hammered paint. Average person won't know the difference and your back in business I'm a few hours. I've done a few parts like that and they look great for quote a few years. And it's cheap! Again it's just an option over sending out to get then dipped.

Just an option.
Joe
 
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