Hi all,
Does anybody know (or have ever had done) were abouts I can get the brake booster body gold anodizsed. Looking at doing one up for my car and would like it to look better than painted.

Ian

You're talking about the VH44?

I always get all my nuts and bolts plated in a batch at an electroplaters. A 20 litre bucket last time I asked was a little more than 80 dollars in any finish I wanted. I'm still living off the benefits. They can do a range of finishes. Bright and dull silver, antique, gold...whatever...

Look up electroplaters, and look for barrel finish for the most part if you want to get a bucket of odds and sods done at once.

There is another method by which they hang each individual item off a a wire and put them in a cathodic bath. Casts quite a bit more, but a slightly more even finish sometimes for large surface area jobs.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

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

yes thats the go! Where did ya get those done?

Ian

firstly you should know they aren't anodised. They are zinc plated. The silver is called blue and the gold is well......gold. You can get them put through as a bucket or drum or you can wire them up. It takes a while to wire them up, but clean them well first and you will get an amazing job with little contamination.
Originally they were cadmium plated but this process is not ideal for the enviro so zinc is the best alternative that is close in colour.

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1970 Cooper S ex-Bathurst & ATCC
1964 Austin Cooper S ex-Group C race car
1967 Morris Cooper S ex-Group B
1962 Mini Speed sports sedan
1968-71 ex-Peter Manton Shell car

I looked a few up, there's certainly no electroplaters in Coffs, I reckon the closest to you would be in newcastle.

What Low'n blown is saying is absolutely correct, the electroplaters will knock back work if it is too dirty as well. It means they dirty up their chemical baths needlessly. The ones in the images above often had a lot of pitting as they were just too rusted. The process can be the final straw for a lot of components if they are simply too far gone. Surface rust is fine, but pitting rust will ruin the finish. You can see that in a lot of components above.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

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

For Parts like brake booster Bodies I would ask to have them still Plated not Barrel
Plated, Barrel Plating is great for parts that do not have large low current density areas
such as the inside of the booster bodies, You will notice on the shock brackets in the photos above The coverage is not great in some of the LCD areas. When still Plated this is LESS of a problem.
Just a point of interest from someone Who had a lot to do with items Plated for BMC
To My knowledge There were very few items Cad plated they used Zinc because it had similar
sacrificial corrosion properties as Cad, for a lot less money, There is a difference in the appearance of zinc plated items today as apposed to the old days, As They use Different electrolytes To day, And there has been
huge improvements in the solutions and Brightening agents, they use today in the electroplating industry.

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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"

Hey John,

Those ones on the table were still plated. The quality of the pieces in that lot weren't the best, so the finish wasn't the best either....but the comment still stands. I've got a few things here that have slight shadows on them from other items sitting on them.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

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

Sorry Mick,
Please Do not think that I was putting down the plating work as a matter of fact
from the photos it looks very Good To Me, But there is from what I can see not much coverage
in some areas of the shock brackets, As I mentioned though, It is Less of a problem when still
Plated, But still a problem, and requires consideration as to where and how the item is placed
In The plating solution, The amount of time the item has to be in the rust removing solution
can also effect the coverage, And the Ph of the rust removing solution has some bearing on this as well
As You Say, If the parts a rusted and pitted the Finish will look less impressive,
And takes away the brightness of the job, However if it has good coverage, The corrosion resistance
will be Just as Good

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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"

Yep. That was a plater in Brunswick, I was less than pleased with that lot, and as it was my first batch I paid far too much for less of a quality that I would have liked.

The next guys I used a number of times were up near Broadmeadows. I didn't have as many badly corroded components this time around and more nuts and bolts. They were barrel platers, and did an amazing job compared to the guys in Brunswick. They used chip basket like things, and lost nothing of the tiny little screws even though they warned I would. A much better experience and outcome for the money. I think they turned the the chip pans over a number of times to try and prevent things from jamming together, but it still happened with some items.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

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