Z1OwnersClub GB

G'day all,
Hmmm, guess you can't edit the subject!
What I meant was stems.
With regard to the "new" indicators (Rear) for a Z900-A4, as available on ePay, Z-Power etc. Anyone know how accurate to original they are? And does the original Stanley lens fit on them? Mine a buggered from thanks to the chromers handiwork.
Thanks
Glenn

(Edited by Sorf at 2:06 am on Aug. 2, 2006)

I too found that the idicators dont take to kindly to re chrome, i think its was they call monkey chrome and is liable to show up imperfections. I went for genuine kawa items which are still available and look far superior to the after market repro ones in quality and finish. Ps I managed to get my local kawa dealer to give me a 30% discount on any Z1 bit I ordered which made genuine items much more attractive.

Ahh just in time I was about to send my originals to be rechromed. Has anyone had theirs done ok if so who did the work. I have fitted some repro's that are not too bad and the original stanley lenses fit fine.

Cheers Ian.

Being a metal poisher by trade and working in
the plating trade can shed some light on this.
On a lot of older vehicles like a Z the indicators
are made of zinc die-cast (monkey metal)while
when new they plate fine when they are rechromed (as with
anything thats being rechromed) the old plating has to be chemicaly stripped
off and the bare metal surface highly polished.
And this is where the problem is zinc die-cast corrodes
away underneath the plating so when you strip the old
plating off you realy dont know what sort of condition
the metal surface is like, my self personally im going
to replace my indicators
with new ones cuz i know what a ***** monkey metal is.
By the way Z fuel caps are made of the same stuff

So, maybe not aftermarket ones eh? Guess I'd better start saving again!
The chromer did say they a bugger to do, so I was warned. Looks as though they had a field with the linisher and have worn the rim where the lens fits down to paper thickness and it's all bent and buckled round the edge. Just glad I only sent the rear ones off.

This is what usually happens when you try and get a perfect finish with die-cast it ends up paper thin, the only way to do it realy is polish as best you can then put a heavy deposit of copper plating on it then polish the copper plating blending any pitting as you go but even this wont guarantee a perfect finish and is time consuming hence costly.

Took one of my original indicators in work today
stripped the old plating off polished the die-cast
(monkey metal)to a reasonable finish then had them
copper plated and a heavy deposit of electroless nickel
then polished the electroless nickel then into the chrome
and hey presto looks good not perfect but for a 30 year old
piece of monkey metal its not bad. Now what a plating firm
would charge for this i dont know but if you want to keep your original indicators its the way to do them.

Well it took all week but ive rechromed
my original indicators, a lot of work & a
lot of time,the way that they were done the cost
would far exceed the cost of a new set, just thougt
id try it to see if it could be done to a reasonable
finish without destroying them.

so mikey how much you gonna charge us to do ours then.
(set of 4)

Have to ask the platers if they would
want to do another set like that again
cuz it was a lot of mucking about and you would
have to accept limitations to the standard of finish
cuz thats where rechroming zinc die-cast goes wrong
by trying to get it perfect.