Solex air cleaner clip authenticity

[718RSK]

I have been having fun dis-assembling my engine ahead of its rebuild.

The air cleaner clips are interesting pieces which consists of three individual pieces which all have their own specific plating. The actual clips do not test out as zinc and I believe they are also not cad. Looking closely at them they almost appear to be painted silver. Given the low milage of the car (it has been sitting since 1976) it is unlikely that this was some sort of owner modifaction.


Is this something other people have observed also? I would love to see some pictures of unrestored clips to see if we can shed some more light on this interesting piece of authenticity

[NeunElf]

I hadn't observed that. In fact--when I redid a lot of stuff in my engine bay--I had mine cadmium plated. Were I to do that again I'd probably use zinc.

I do have some original clips.

Here's a very similar clip in a 1966 VW Bus:

And here are clips on an unrestored Solex air cleaner:

I'm not really sure, but I don't think that was paint. I don't see any sign of paint lifting from the clips like you can see the black paint on the air cleaner body doing.

[DEEMAN]

I have just reworked clips from an 01/65 cleaner that seemed to be painted just like those in Post 1. Another set I have are from August/Sept 65 car(no date stamp) and are zinc plated. I also have some Solex type of much later production (Porsche reproduction) that are yellow cad.

Any help?

[1QuickS]

I have found both silver zinc plating & yellow chromated, zinc plating on the Solex carburetor projects I have serviced and the these finishes are mixed for the same project. If a Solex project comes to me from a car that never had its Solexes replaced by Webers then I try to replicate the OEM finishes based upon my data and the determinations of that project. If a project comes to me from a car with Webers and replacement Solexes are supplied for restoration then I will silver zinc plate all steel hardware and finish the springs with yellow chromate over zinc plating since this seems to be consistent.

I believe cadmium plating was replaced with zinc plating by the time the Solex 40PI series was adopted.

[718RSK]

Thanks for the replies, they really help.

I played around with the clips a bit more today and they are definitely painted. The cotter keys test silver zinc and the wires gold zinc. Pretty funky combination. I will make sure to restore them back this way. Will have to find some pretty durable paint as I am worried about it chipping.

On the solexes most of the hardware tested out silver zinc. Some gold. I kind of like the mis-match of silver and gold. The car is pretty much the same way with loads of hand brushed touch ups over silver or gold zinc. Pretty much no cad. My cad testing fluids have run out so I need to get some more. So far I have only found a handful of pieces which I suspect to be cad.