front hood locking mechanism

[Zithlord]

The front hood locking mechanism in the trunk and under the hood, was it golden cadmium(yellow zinc) or silver cadmium look from the factory?

John

[MoparBoy72]

The peice attached to the front appron (recevier end ) should be silver cad.

[schmidt]

Clear zinc NOT cad on the latch upper and lower. The spring on a 73 is normally clear with a yellow irrodite. The fasteners are a clear as well, one of the few places on the car with clear fasteners.

[Zithlord]

Thanks to all!

[WM711]

I just sold 2 NOS uppers, still in packaging, they were both Yellow. The reciever (lower), is silver, but i dont think it is Cd or Zinc... I think it is Chrome. At least on 73. Cd plating is silver, not yellow. The yellow rainbow color comes from a chemical reaction from a chromate solution dip, you can get several colors including yellow, green, and blue. Cadmium application is a plating process, (step one), step two is the Chromate dip. I have been Cd plating, with yellow chromate on all my hardware and fasteners on my 73E restoration. The yellow finish fades over time, as we all know. The plating hangs in like hair in a biscuit. I have taken the oldest, most worn bolt you can imagine, and put it in Muratic Acid, it boils like you cant believe. (You must remove the old plating from each item to be plated, before you re plate each.) There is still much plating present on the old hardware, its just ugly. All new bolts now are Zinc plated. Cd makes for a much more asthetically pleasing look, not to mention the corrosion resistance superiority over Zinc. TMI... sorry-Bill

[schmidt]

The upper latch on a 73 is not original in yellow, and the lower latch is not chrome if you are referencing a 73 model car. If you had NOS then I assume you had some kind of verification they were produced in 1973. Most things NOS have been built much later by original suppliers with different specification than original such as coatings even a few years after original application. NOS means very little more than its unused and old. The question remains, how old??? Cd plating is much flatter than Zinc, Cd is found in 356 era cars in clear. Cd can be done in both clear and yellow. The Cd is softer than the zinc and is usually damaged when fasteners are tightened and re tightened thus the move to zinc. Zinc is done in both acid and alkaline solution, the later is in theory more correct with better results however do to EPA concerns is hard to find. In addition Zinc plating must be baked after the plating to release the hydrogen from the metal. Hydrogen will cause the metal to be brittle and premature failure of the plating. Bill the plating for your project I saw in your online photos is too orange, too rough, and too flat if you are attempting the original look, it is appears to be Cd and is nothing like original. I agree the Cd does look OK sometimes, but it is far from correct. Just my thoughts, didnt mean to ruffle any feathers.

This is my bench mark for a 73E.
http://www.911e.org/microsite.php?9113200707

[bobmagyar]

Schmidt,

I have to admit, I really appreciate it when someone really DOES know what they are talking about.

Cheers,

Bob

[schmidt]

Thanks, I have screwed alot of things up over the years and learned some good lessons. When it comes to restoration and authenticity I follow a strict..... very strict standard. Iam running a RS restoration on an early series one car right now. The project was started by someone else first. NOT one thing was right, we had to start from scratch after thousands had been spent, even the plating was ruined by Cd plating. The fasteners looked like someone even blasted all of them first before plating....crazy, we spent months collecting the right hardware to refinish correctly. Having said that I have friends in the restoration business who swear by the Cd......we argue about it all the time.

[WM711]

Sorry if I gave out incorrect information, just trying to help. See Ya-Bill