Magnesium Early Weber Manifolds- Plating Step #1- FLASH COPPER

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Wow. . . .check this OUT. . .

911 Weber manifolds are magnesium.

The early ones received an iridescent yellow-blue "chem film" or other surface treatment. I have posted some photos of what they looked like here. The later ones were coated with a black "imron" which is extremely durable.

Replicating the early coating is not only hard to do in terms of the color, but it's also a good idea in terms of preserving the magnesium- 40 years of moisture and corrosion have taken their toll on the original surface, which is revealed after the manifolds were ceramic tumbled and surfaced.

Anyway, here's the issue- you can't just Cad-plate magnesium manifolds using the same process you use for steel-- the first step in the plating process is a "strike" or acid dip to activate the substrate, then the plating starts. Unfortunately, if you dip magnesium in the acid. . . it will go away! The plater wouldn't even take these the first time around.

Turns out you can plate the magnesium with an alkaline process that doesn't dissolve it-- you plate with either flash copper or electroless nickel. Then you do the cad/chromate process normally. Flash copper is the best substrate, so that's what I did.

This whole process was done at Millenium Plating Company in Lowell, MA.
Their contact information is below. Please tell Steve you heard about this process through the Early 911S Registry.

Millennium Plating Company, Inc.
75 Phoenix Ave.
Lowell, MA 01852
(978) 454-0526
(978) 454-0915 FAX
sales@magplate

Steve can also do the other mag parts. . fans, blower housing, magnesium valve covers, etc. I'm going to do the fan for my race car in Electroless Nickel. . . not only will this look great and be easy to keep clean, the abrasion reistance will be extremely good.

OK, time for the photos. . . . are you ready? I included the original shot to show what these will look when they are done.

Price for mag plating is available from Steve, it's not inexpensive, something like this is around $200.