[Woj]

A real phosphate finish looks like a flat black to flat dark gray metallic. It depends on the metal, acid and temperature of the solution. The finishes vary greatly. OEM paints makes a couple of different phospate finish paints, but those will set you back $80/can.

My 69 SS, un-restored original has black painted hood hinges. If you live in a moist climate, consider painting them. Phosphate finishes are not very durable. If you phosphate your hinges, a local plating shop can do them, you will need to protect them with some oil. Which will alter the appearance some.

Good luck.

Woj.

[Finally]

I've seen original parts with the phosphate coating and they were very dark. I also saw areas of the part that are covered when installed so they're not exposed to the elements and these areas were lighter in color. I wonder if the color darkened some over time.

[64chevy]

I am not attempting to comment on correctness, but if you opt to use the "castblast" option, I would DEFINITELY use the "CastBlast" paint, and NOT the VHT version of this paint. After using cast blast for years on misc. parts with good success, I tried the VHT in a pinch once. And once was all it took. The product in my opinion is far inferior to CastBlast. I doesn't have the same consistency, doesn't coat evenly, and runs very easily. Unless I had a bad can, that stuff was junk in my opinion. CastBlast on the other hand is almost impossible to mess up. Just my two cents...

[2BlueLS6's]

I've tried about a dozen different products and am not 100% satisfied with any of them. The Eastwood product is too dark in my opinion. The Brandon product is lighter, but too light. Tried misting one on top of the other lightly (in both directions.......... light over dark, then dark over light) with less than ideal results. Tried misting several different brands of cast blast, PlastiCoat (my first choice), VHT, and CastBlast, but up close, even when misting it's still got some metallic look to it that real phosphate doesn't have. It's hard to believe that somebody hasn't mixed something up that really looks decent. Had some phosphate stuff I bought at a car show that requires heating on a stove (OUTSIDE BECAUSE OF FUMES) to 450º. I liked it okay EXCEPT for the fact it was a pain to use, and would rust if not clear coated over, and AFTER clear coating, even trying flat clear and semi gloss clear, it started looking wrong again.

[71MalibuRagTop]

I've been looking into this myself. It seems the color varies from a light gray to dark charcoal. I took mine to a plating shop last week. Turns out there is more than one type of phosphate plating. The shop owner thought they should be zinc phosphate which is a fairly light ash gray. But he said there is another finish called "Type M" which is Manganese Phosphate. He showed me a sample and it is a dark charcoal gray, and looks very much like some pictures I saw in these posts. He said the Type M is much more corrosion resistant. Could it be that GM actually used manganese phosphate on some hood hinges and hood latch/catches? Maybe different plants used different processes, such as East Coast requiring manganese? It wouldn't be the first time we've seen different processes used from plant to plant. Might also explain some of the confusion, since Type M is not very well known and many people think "phosphate" always means zinc phosphate.
Any thoughts?

[Raven1]

Read this: http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=1092.0 You can't look at pics unless you register, which someone from this site just did at my suggestion. Many data and mechanicals will cross over from Camaros to Chevelles. The search is easy to navigate and there is very little chit chat to read through to get the data either.

[71MalibuRagTop]

Thanks for the info and the link Scott. That was very helpful. I'd also like to say the photos of NOS hinges and springs from Ken (CrazyChevelleMan) were very helpful as well. I am having the plating shop go with the Manganese Phosphate coating on my set. Should be done sometime next week. Thanks again!

Ron

[smoke' em II]

Originally Posted by craig leighton

Have new set of hinges, they are I presume primer black? I was thinking of soaking them in thinners to remove coating then spraying with Por 15 Metal Mask paint Ive used it on a lot of smaller parts has anyone sprayed it and do you think it will work on hinges or should I just go for the spray can grey?

Craig, If you are going to restore a whole car, this finish is on alot of parts. Below is a link to the chemicals. They have both types of phosphates (Zinc and Manganese). These chemicals are cheaper than all of the rattle can paints you will have to buy, to do a whole car.

http://www.palmettoenterprises.net/P...-Welcome-.html

[SixActual]

I used Cast Blast on mine and applied it as suggested above by Hank (Post #4), and they came out very nice. I'm satisfied.

[Raven1]

Originally Posted by smoke' em II

Craig, If you are going to restore a whole car, this finish is on alot of parts. Below is a link to the chemicals. They have both types of phosphates (Zinc and Manganese). These chemicals are cheaper than all of the rattle can paints you will have to buy, to do a whole car.

http://www.palmettoenterprises.net/P...-Welcome-.html

This is in the link I posted with pics and more information.

[Freddy Mercado]

I agree. I had mine phosphated and they turned out a dark gray or black. But they are good to go.

[danvil1]

i sand blasted mine and then shot a non glossy clear coat on them.
they look NOS this way and it is so simple to do.

[Cam]

I was lucky enough to walk into a Chevy dealer parts department back in 1986 and buy new phosphate coated hinges and springs. I just hit them once in a while with WD40. The hinges had white grease on them right out of the package (which incidently showed the parts to have come from a warehouse in Woodstock, Ontario. I was told they had parts back into the 1950s there in 1986)