How much of the original bare metal under bonnet fittings were gold cad back in 1970 ? I seem to remember most being silver zinc but that maybe my old brain, hopefully someone can remember.

Thanks

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1970 Mk 2 Cooper S

I seem to remember all the bare bits that weren't silver were gold.

Hello,
I have 1969 and 1970 minis and I'm sure none of the fasteners/fittings new were cadmium or gold zinc. The japanese cars were the ones who started to cad/gold zinc plating.
Bill

I'm with you Bill, except for the PBR booster, wiper motor and maybe the ignition coil mounting bracket.

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1970 Mk 2 Cooper S

I've pulled many nuts and bolts out which have had the remnants of gold plating on them, and my spares bucket is the same. I'm unsure if this was subsequent bolts put in over the lives of the cars, but they look pretty old.

I'm unsure if there was any hard or fast rule, but everything I have inside the car that can be seen I plate silver, and the rest are a mix of gold and silver. John Schmidt is a plater, and follows the plating quite closely. I wonder if he could put two bits in.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Thanks Mick I thought you might come in, I used to work on these back n those days and had several Mini, s but for the love of me I cant remember what's normal, I agree some of the bolts have the remnants' of gold on mine as well. Maybe someone has an original coloured photo of the engine bay.

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1970 Mk 2 Cooper S

Hello Darrell,
Just checked my Mini K (bought new in 1969). The wiper motor has never been touched and the cover plate has a fading silver plating on it. The coil bracket is also silver plated, but has been messed with over the years - replacement brackets supplied with Bosch coils, for instance, used cadmium plating. The PBR booster was from an outside supplier and could have been either but I thought my 1970 MkII S had a silver booster shell also.
Bill.

Thanks Bill I like the silver better it seems to last longer than the gold, my booster still has the original BMC PBR sticker on it and still shows signs of gold cad,mine is 1970 build maybe there was a change around then god knows..

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1970 Mk 2 Cooper S

Hello Darrell,
Be aware that there is zinc plating - which now can be either silver coloured or gold coloured; or cadmium plating which is gold coloured.
Bill.

A little bit of trivia - the gold passivated plating on the cover of the Lucas 12AUW wiper motor (the round bodied one) indicates it is for negative earth.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

So am I to assume that gold plating was the go for all neg earthed cars.

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1970 Mk 2 Cooper S

From Memory, Up until late 1967 early 1968 I think, Plain Zinc, clear passivated (Silver ) was used for the most part, then zinc plating and orange passivating (Gold ) was used more than plain zinc.
Passivated is a process that improves the corrosion protection afforded by just zinc or cad plating the orange or Gold colour offers a slightly better protection than plain (silver )
Please Note that Cad ( Cadmium ) plating was not used in this era as much as people think. it is a much more expensive metal than zinc. cad plating and clear passivated (silver ) is more of a white colour than zinc, but it can be orange passivated just the same as zinc plating and if it is orange passivated it is hard to tell if is zinc or Cadmium. plated.
On a lot of modern cars You may notice that there is more parts that are an olive Drab colour, this is an improvement on the Silver or Gold colours, it adds a significant improvement in corrosion protection,

If you ask your electroplater for cad plating and he in fact does electroplate with cadmium than expect a rather large bill
I hope this is of some help
John Smidt

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" A Hundred Years From Now It will not Matter what my Bank Acount Was,
The Sort Of House I Lived in, Or The Kind Of Car I drove ... But The World May Be A Better Place
Because I was Once Important In The Life Of A Child"

Thanks for the update I mostly makes sense now ie some gold some silver

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1970 Mk 2 Cooper S