Zinc Plating.

[irhobotolo]

Well the nights are drawing in and its nearing that time of year when I go into hibernation....Er sorry I mean the garage to tat with my bikes.

I want to get some of the fasterners and other bits off my KH500 replated as its looking a bit tired after 32 years ! Can anyone recommend someone who does this who wont loose or break things. Also what finish do I ask for to replicate standard 70s finish as I am told various types are available ?
Prefer midlands if possible although I could post as it will end up being a box full of nuts, wheel spindles, chain adjusters, bolts etc which wont weigh too much.

Any advice welcome as I have not dealt with zinc plating before and dont want "a learning curve" with original bits which would be hard to replace.

[AL MARSHALL]

mikey does my clock bottoms for me,top job and right price. he is your man

[GEZ635]

I use a place in Birmingham near hockley.The guy who does it is a bike rider/owner so he knows how important it is not to lose anything. The secret to great zinc plating is in the preparation of each piece you put in.Some think you just drop off a load of rusty old bolts and they will end up looking like new but there is no chance of that. I use a bench grinder with a polishing spindle on it and I attach a scotch brite type wheel to it and clean up every part.The better the prep the better the results.It can take a long time to do everything on the bike. I normally re-zinc the spokes when restoring and it is a long process doing every one. When I do carb parts I use my own zinc plating kit because some of the parts are so small . Let me know if you want anymore details. I have seen Al's clocks that he has Mikey do and they are very good.I am in Great Barr so you can always pop round and I will show you some zinc work I have had done. Gerry
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[Hack]

Stephen Smethurst has some tips regarding zinc platingin the Z1 Renovation section on his website

[RB]

Ermmmm . . ME Turn around should be 1 week

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http://www.classickawasaki.com/plating.htm

[irhobotolo]

Thanks for the replies. There is some interesting stuff on Steve Smethursts site relating to restoration. I will be taking the KH off the road soon to do a load of other overdue work so will sort out all the "zinced" bits at the same time although it wont be SS as its not a "show winner".