I know there are only one or two anal-retentive types on this site so I am prepared to wait a bit for a response.....

'66 Chevelle SS L-34 with A/C P/S etc.

I have absolutely everthing from the firewall forward out of the car. This does not include the two fenders and the steering linkage (as the front suspension and all parts were gone thru just prior to my engine going bye-bye). Engine (after rebuild) and tranny are painted. Every accessory (alt, ps pump, wiper motor, compressor, rad, condensor, evaporator) has been either rebuilt or bought new and properly finished. Every bracket has been sandblasted and painted. Now what finish do the bolts, nuts, and screws get? I have found on the Eastwood site the tin-zinc and black oxide home brew plating systems. I suspect I will need both. My guess for the bolts/nuts are:

All body bolts (fender skirts, rad support, motor mounts): Black Oxide
Anything that mounts to the rad support: Black Oxide
Anything that mounts to the firewall:Tin-Zinc
All accessory brackets (both sides): Black Oxide

Is there a published source somewhere for this answer?


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Paul
'66 Red SS 396 360HP L34

Paul,

Your guesses all look good...However some of my accessory brackets are Zinc coated bolts ie. alternator. Water pump are Chev Orange.

Any bolts you intend to have plated I would reccommend looking up a local plating shop.

They will do a whole coffe can of bolts for a nominal charge.

Also any bolts that were originally Zinc I had Cad plated. Cad is much more durable than Zinc. Cad can be finished "Clear" (Silver) or Yellow (like a power brake booster).

My Velle is a 69' SS396 with a L-78 so some finishes may be different.

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FastSS396Man
Brian

Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manflqtr3.jpg), Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manflqtr2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manrrqtr3.jpg),
Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manint1.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manint2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396mantrunk2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manfrchassis.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manexh.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manengine1.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manrchas1.jpg)
69' SS396 Chevelle
L78 396/375hp
M-21 Close Ratio
Cortez Silver
10 year Resto
It's brand new again!
02' Harley FatBoy, Diamond Ice pearl.

Pual,

See "Anal-retentive" pics below. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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FastSS396Man
Brian

Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manflqtr3.jpg), Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manflqtr2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manrrqtr3.jpg),
Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manint1.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manint2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396mantrunk2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manfrchassis.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manexh.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manengine1.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manrchas1.jpg)
69' SS396 Chevelle
L78 396/375hp
M-21 Close Ratio
Cortez Silver
10 year Resto
It's brand new again!
02' Harley FatBoy, Diamond Ice pearl.

If you can't find someone locally to plate your parts, Steve can handle that job, check out his website.
http://www.brakeboosters.com/
He did some parts for me that are like jewelry.

------------------
Never be afraid to try something new.
An amatuer built the Ark,
Professionals built the Titanic.
Team Chevelle Gold #33
ACES Member #02913

Brian,
I know the adjusting bolt on the alternator is zinc plated, it appears that the pivet bolt was blackened. My water pump and bolts are Chevy Orange (POR-15). Thanks for the input. Especially the idea of having a local plating shop do the work. They should be setup to do a much better job than some homebrew kit. I hope they will be willing to maintain the 75 different baggies of bolts I have kept seperated for reassembly :) I will do the Cad plating, that is much more durable than the tin/zinc, thanks. And yes Brian I have seen your pictures before, all I can say is WOW!

Tom,
I live outside Dallas and should be able to find a plating shop willing to do the work. But if not I will give Steve a jingle.

Will the plating shops be able to do the black oxide? I suspect so.

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Paul
'66 Red SS 396 360HP L34

Paul, I made a great find last week that I am sure would interest you. At a wrecking yard there were mid- 60's cars with the original air still in the tires. I carefully extracted the air and labeled it so as not to mix GM air with Ford air. I am reselleing this at $10 a pound.

All kidding aside, it is great to see you and so many others on this site take such pains to make the correct restoring their Chevelles.

Larry


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Larry
TC # 1000
66 Malibu - under transformation
www.members.home.net/larrymacdonald2

You didn't state if you were trying to keep your car original. If not, why not look into stainless steel fasteners. Our local supplier (McFadden-Dale) had everything we needed for our '69 Elke.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

Team Members,

Richard, Judy, MAXX2


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'69 Elke (Frame Off); GM HO 350/330-Mildly Ported Vortec Heads-Manley Severe Duty SS 2.02/1.60 Valves, 4L60 (Non computer) W/Lokar Shifter, Comp Cams Full Roller Package (Magnum)-Custom Grind CS 3315/3316 HR112-.510/.520 Lift, Edelbrock Air-Gap W/750 Performer Manual Choke-Performer 100 HP NOS, March Pulleys, 12 Bolt Posi.

Paul,

The plating shop should be able to do the blach as well.
Ask to see some samples of the different finishes so you will know for sure what your parts will look like.

I did also use some stainless parts as well. But most of the stainless bolts are not automotive grade,(they are weaker). And the head markings were not correct.

Do not use any stainless bolts on any high stress applications, ie., suspension, motor mounts, trans to engine or trans mounts etc... I think you get the picture.

The pivot bolt for the Alternator is black oxide. However the lower and upper bracket bolts are cad/zinc and the adjusting bolt is cad/zinc.

Brian
SSMan

Here's the the scoop I have on Zinc plating. Someone told me about having parts zinc plated and after I found out about it I wondered why I didn't find out sooner. I pay $50.00 for a 5 gallon bucket full of parts to have them zinc plated, the parts can have grease and surface rust on them and when they come back they look like brand new. If you have any parts that have springs on them make shure the tension is off the spring otherwise when the parts are dipped in the acid the spring will break. I have put a Hurst shifter without the handle in the bucket and had it plated, the zinc won't stick to stainless steel parts. You can have the parts with the gold tint added after the parts are plated, the gold parts are just dipped into a dye. If you want the gray phoshate look all you have to do is go to Wall Mart or any place that sell gun blue and buy a small bottle for about $3.00, use a Q tip and brush on the gun blue, gun blue is an oxidizer so after it is applied you need to spray the parts with WD 40 or a light machine oil and then they are good to go.

Hey Guys,

When a plating shop plates nuts, bolts, washers, springs ect., with zinc, cad or phospate these parts need to be baked in a special oven. This process I believe is called imbrittlement. It is necessary because during the plating process the parts do become brittle. To keep it simple this process makes the parts normal again.

Be sure to aske the shop if they include this step in the plating process.

Also note: Small parts as mentioned above most likely will be barrell plated (tumbled plated). While large parts (brake boosters) should be dipped or rack plated.

The barrell plating is fine for small parts but if the shop tries to barrell plate a large part with small parts the plating finish will not have the right appearence it will look a bit darker less-shiny gray, and may even appear to be scratched.

It is not practical to rack plate tiny parts as each one would have to be hung independantly and the dipped.

Also I would reccomend that you make a ledger and draw a picture, measure each part with a discription. Use a bolt gauge so that there is no question. Even though you have all these parts in seperate bags and labeled for it's specific application, it is not practical for the plating shop to plate in tiny batches. One large coffee can of parts will be the same cost to plate as a handfull. So plan on handing them a bucket full, unseperated. After the plating you will get a bucket full back and will need to seperate them back out.

I did this for every nut, bolt and washer on my Chevelle. So with a little patience and planning ahead you can save $ and headaches.

Also take every thing you are going to have plated at the same time to save money. I think I ended up with three different batches at three different times. So it cost me three time as much.

Hope all this info helps.

------------------
FastSS396Man
Brian

Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manflqtr3.jpg), Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manflqtr2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manrrqtr3.jpg),
Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manint1.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manint2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396mantrunk2.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manfrchassis.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manexh.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manengine1.jpg),Fastss396 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/fastss396manrchas1.jpg)
69' SS396 Chevelle
L78 396/375hp
M-21 Close Ratio
Cortez Silver
10 year Resto
It's brand new again!
02' Harley FatBoy, Diamond Ice pearl.

It is true that stainless steel nuts/bolts/washers are not as strong as #8 or ?, however, I can't tell you how many bolts we have seen that have cracked and/or actually broke that were chrome plated. They can become very brittle, but it seems that no one realizes this.

We used stainless steel nuts/bolts/washers that are rated near #8, because we purchased them from a reliable source. You can purchase stainless steel or look-a-likes from your local Home Depot or Lowes or ? that you think are rated at #5 or higher, but guess what=weak.

Hope this helps.

Team Members,

Richard, Judy, MAXX2



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'69 Elke (Frame Off); GM HO 350/330-Mildly Ported Vortec Heads-Manley Severe Duty SS 2.02/1.60 Valves, Comp Cams Full Roller Package (Magnum)-Custom Grind CS 3315/3316 HR112-.510/.520 Lift, Edelbrock Air-Gap W/750 Performer Manual Choke-Performer 100 HP NOS, March Pulleys, 4L60 (Non Computer) W/Lokar Shifter, 12 Bolt Posi.

Thanks gang for all of the input. Yes the car is going back as close to original as my budget will allow during this phase. Block, heads, intake, rear axle are correct. Tranny is a 1967 TH400, not the PG that was in it.

Evaporator, heater core (this has been replaced due to the "fun" involved in replacement), master cylinder, radiator (now re-cored) are also correct. Water pump, A/C Compressor, fan, carb, distributor are not.

Items still under investigation: A/C Condensing coil (where do I look?), P/S Pump (where do I look?), Steering box.

Thanks for all of the inputs on plating and such. I guess I will empty all of the fasteners from the bags one at time and take a digital picture of each. This will enable me to have at least a prayer at putting this baby back together correctly and before next winter....

I always assumed that Grade 5 or better bolts were never chrome or stainless plated due to the process causing weaking or brittleness. This somewhat confirms. I would like to know exactly what in the process causes this.

Hey Larry where was that car. I need that air!

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Paul
'66 Red SS 396 360HP L34