$1K 68 Sportomatic

[Carl S.]

Not that I am aware of. When re-plating all I am going to do is strip off the thin outside protective zinc and chromate plating. This coating is not structural, mealy to protect the bare steel from the elements.

The highest temperature used is 190 degrees. Not enough to take the temper our of the bolts.

Hopefully, I will be able to try it this evening for the first time. Should be interesting.

I am using the Caswell system and chemicals. Mikes Restorations on Youtube has a pretty good video on how he did it.

[Johannes356]

Fellow sporto owner here checking in. Making nice fast progress. Looking forward to following along and seeing end result.

[Carl S.]

Thanks,
It is a Sporto. I am not sold on the idea of no clutch though. I am torn between keeping it stock or swapping to a manual for what I enjoy driving. Then keep the Sporto stuff to switch back in the future if desired.

[Carl S.]

Had a little time to play in the garage. I fixed my sand blaster so it does not shock the hell out of me any more. Finally.
Ran a ground wire to the trigger handle. NO more zapping. That got old. The static was arcing 1/2" to my chest. Annoying!!!

Back tracked on my front spindles. It was suggested that they are a weak point. So I made some 1/4" plate steel gussets and burned them in.
I will admit the first side is not quite as nice. I'll blend in a little better with some body filler and should look good.



Had a heck of a time trying to get my plating to work. I tried everything all week. Very Frustrating!! Best I can tell at this point is that my electrolyte is bad. Will need to order another set of chemicals.
That should do the trick.

[Carl S.]

Did some final sanding and some touch up POR-15.

Almost looks factory.

[Carl S.]

Well, finally got something to show. I had a hell of a time over the last 2 weeks getting this to work. Turns out my chemicals were bad and I had the wrong anode. (rather not discuss that one) Can't plate zinc with lead.

The pic is not great but I managed to get some good results.
Produced some Blue Chromate, Black Chromate and Yellow Chromate.

Those are my finger prints. I was just trying to get it to work and did not let it dry completely.

The latch pieces look amazing in natural light. just a slight blue tint when angled correctly. Pretty cool for being 52 years old.

[Carl S.]

Finally some good results. Dang, that was not easy.
A lot of trial an error with the chemicals, time, amps and temp.
I am pleased with the small plated parts. Should be interesting with the larger parts. Hope it goes as well.

[Carl S.]

Hello,
Spent the day plating some parts. Only took 3 long weeks for me to get if finally working.. Loooong story, but now I have it. You have to do each string separately to get the plating correct.

This is what I got plated from 9:00 am to 7:30 pm. Nothing fast about doing it yourself. Sure is satisfying though.

The parts look better than an original bolt I purchased for reference.

Did some Blue, Black and Yellow Chromate.

Had a great day. What a cool project!!!!

[Carl S.]

It has got to be faster to take a bucket of parts to a shop. Doing it by hand, and only a few pieces at a time is very time consuming. I am still going to trudge on and perhaps if I can not keep up, I will drop some off at at plater about 2 hrs. away. I have to visit for the first time and maybe after that I could mail off the pieces.

Here is my weekend bounty of plated parts. I know, it's not a 5 gal bucket full. Please don't make fun of me, I am very sentimental about my little progress, but, I did it myself and I sure do know where each bolt goes. Found a few missing washers. Need to check the media in the blasting cabinet

[Carl S.]

Not to bad for a novice.

Before



After: