Refreshing old fasteners

[RangerGress]

I like new fasteners. There is just something cheery about a project put together with new fasteners.

I've dismantled a number of cars over the years. Mostly it was about getting parts for the race car, but it's also helped fund the hobby. As a result of the dismantling I've accumulated a lot of fasteners, which I keep all organized in little drawers. But all the old fasteners look like hell.

I tried bead blasting, I tried various media in a vibrating cleaner, but nothing really worked well to make the fasteners look good again.

When I was at Metric Mechanic last year for a week I talked to them about their fasteners. They send them out to be plated. Last week I finally got around to asking MM where they send their fasteners. This is important because each state's environmental laws are a big player on the plating industry and processes and costs vary wildly state to state.

Today I sent 20lbs of fasteners to MM's plating outfit in Missouri. Cost only $11 in a USPS Priority box.

[TOOLEAN]

$11 for shipping, how much for the plating?

[speedblind]

Interested in this.

I've heard near-boiling Simple Green works for grease and crud, but never tried it.

[RangerGress]

$11 for shipping, how much for the plating?

Unknown.

I asked MM (Jim Rowe) how much it was back in Jan11 and the price he gave was inexpensive enough that my reaction was "one day I'm going to do that".

[RangerGress]

I talked to CaMyer Electroplating today about the 20lbs of fasteners I sent them. It's going to cost $40 + $10.50 for the USPS flat rate priority box. 20lbs is a lot of fasteners so this is a big score.

How to do this.

1. Get the fasteners as clean as you can. Soak them in solvent and stir them around a bit.

2. Get two USPS Priority boxes and note how much it costs to ship that box. Fold up one of the boxes and put it in the other with your fasteners. Write a note that gives them the basic info, I used "Yellow Zinc" plating, and write a check that will cover the plating charge, the charge for the mailing the USPS Priority box, and a couple extra bucks just to be sure. Assume $2/lb of fasteners. Google CaMyer Electroplating to get the address.

3. After you figure they've rec'd the box, give CG Bradley a call and confirm that your $$ will cover the charge. Be nice, we're really not worth his trouble.

Other notes.
You don't have to do USPS but it's the cheapest way because of the flat rate Priority boxes. If you want to do UPS instead, you need to send them a prepaid shipping label. UPS is their preferred way.

You will pay more if you send them individual groups of fasteners and expect them back in the same groups.

They don't do credit cards.

I don't know if they can plate non-ferrous materials so I'd talk to CG before sending him aluminum parts.

[RangerGress]

I got the fasteners back last week and neglected to get back to this thread. They look fabulous. Score.

[bawareca]

That is a great idea and to be honest,I never thought about that.

[m3larson]

You need to be very careful re-plating fasteners. If the fasteners are heat treated steel and you re-plate without "baking" the fastener then you will cause hydro embroilment. Meaning your fastener will break under stress. You don't want that! If it’s a fastener going into any drivetrain, suspension, brakes ect then I will almost guarantee those parts are heat treated. I manufacture fasteners for a living and I supply to the automotive industry. I would never re-plate any fastener that I didn't know the raw material on and then use it on a car.. Buy a new fastener.

[RangerGress]

You need to be very careful re-plating fasteners. If the fasteners are heat treated steel and you re-plate without "baking" the fastener then you will cause hydro embroilment. Meaning your fastener will break under stress. You don't want that! If it’s a fastener going into any drivetrain, suspension, brakes ect then I will almost guarantee those parts are heat treated. I manufacture fasteners for a living and I supply to the automotive industry. I would never re-plate any fastener that I didn't know the raw material on and then use it on a car.. Buy a new fastener.

I had my fasteners replated at the same place using the same process as Metric Mechanic does. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

"Hydro embroilment"....You're not just pulling my leg, right? In all honesty, I've never even heard of it, much less take precautions against it.

[NeilM]

You need to be very careful re-plating fasteners. If the fasteners are heat treated steel and you re-plate without "baking" the fastener then you will cause hydro embroilment.

Or hydrogen embrittlement. Damn you autocorrect?

Maybe the plating service does bake them?
Maybe RangerGress could do it himself, depending on how protective Mrs. RangerGress feels about her kitchen oven? Hey, many of us have done worse things in the kitchen...

Edit: According to this article, http://www.greensladeandcompany.com/...oks%20like.pdf the fasteners most likely to be affected by hydrogen embrittlement are class 12.9, due to their extreme hardness. Thinking about it, it seems to me that class 12.9 fasteners are usually bare metal or black oxide finished rather than electroplated.

Neil

[robjohnson]

My rule is 20 bucks in hardware per race. I just take old stuff off, throw it away and replace it with new. It doesn't take long and everything on the car is new. I don't play with refurbishing old stuff. I like my hardware new out of the box with no cycles on it. I like the factory coatings too. I stopped buying stuff from fastenal entirely because their quality is pretty poor. The bolts are cheap and the coatings gall in the threads causing corrosion.

[bawareca]

Aside from the recoating,I dont believe it is easy to find a quality stuff like the old school BMW hardware.I would put original bolt with 10 cycles over unknown piece any day.
Now,if we are talking about the new style aluminum bolts,one should be stupid to reuse it,but teh ol' stuff lasts forever.

[ScotcH]

Anyone have a good source for OE or OE equivilent hardware? I'm not paying $8 each for a feking bolt at the stealer!

[magnetic1]

Anyone have a good source for OE or OE equivilent hardware? I'm not paying $8 each for a feking bolt at the stealer!

mcmaster.com

[ScotcH]

mcmaster.com

Any place that isn't owned by a-holes and will sell to Canadians?

[RangerGress]

That is a great idea and to be honest,I never thought about that.

From my drawer of 8mm fasteners.

[NeilM]

Pretty damn good result, and especially useful for non-standard fasteners that are expensive or difficult to replace with new.

Neil

[RangerGress]

The fact that the pics are such close ups brings out far more apparent flaws then is really the case in person. The fasteners look really good.

[athayer187]

Wow - looks great - not super expensive either. There really is nothing like using squeaky clean fasteners - they take to loctite or anti sieze so much better!

[bawareca]

From my drawer of 8mm fasteners.

Thanks again for sharing.Looks great,I will definitely fill up a flat rate box anytime soon.

[magnetic1]

Any place that isn't owned by a-holes and will sell to Canadians?

Prolly caus it is a pain in the ass to ship to Canada w/ customs, etc.

Have you tried MSC? http://www1.mscdirect.com

There has to be something similar in Canada...

Or mayb Fastenal: http://www.fastenal.com/web/location...nal&country=CA

[RangerGress]

The fact that the pics are such close ups brings out far more apparent flaws then is really the case in person. The fasteners look really good.

Best of all, chick's dig them.

Ok, maybe that was a little too slapstick, even for me.

[ScotcH]

Prolly caus it is a pain in the ass to ship to Canada w/ customs, etc.

Have you tried MSC? http://www1.mscdirect.com

There has to be something similar in Canada...

Or mayb Fastenal: http://www.fastenal.com/web/location...nal&country=CA

No it isnt ... companies are just lazy ANyway, mcc won't SELL to Canadians, even if I wanted it shipped to a US address.

Fastenal works of course, but I wanted something more OEM quality. I'll try the other ones ... thanks.