Restoring Nuts, bolts and fasteners

[DefTrap]

I wouldn't paint or plate either. Painting I agree looks particularly nasty

I've never tried blackening steel with oil, maybe that's worth an experiment? (Assuming you're ok with black )

[Skub]

I've got titanium nuts, the barstards have chemically welded themselves to some steel threads

Not much help now,but a little lube (matron) helps prevent galling.

[mangocrazy]

Another vote for getting the old bolts plated. I'm in Sheffield and I'm fortunate to have small firms within a couple of miles radius that can do zinc plating/passivating (silver or yellow), electroless nickel plating (my personal favourite, comes out looking a bit like stainless), black phosphate and chrome (expensive). With most of those firms if you walk in with a bag of stuff they'll plate them all for £50 cash or less.

This is an example of electroless nickel plating of some Lancia Beta parts:

DSC_4386.JPG (275.41 KiB) Viewed 470 times

And these are some beta uprights and hubs black phosphated:

DSC_3291_small.JPG (333.21 KiB) Viewed 470 times

[mangocrazy]

There is an important point to be made here - as a rule of thumb only fasteners with a tensile rating of 8.8 or lower should be electroplated (or electroless plated). High tensile bolts (10.9 or 12.9) should not be plated due to the risk of hydrogen embrittlement. There are measures to counteract HE in high tensile fastener manufacture, but those measures are very unlikely to be followed by a local company.

This is why high tensile bolts are often in black phosphate finish. Black phosphate is a true surface treatment, as the phosphate actually sinks microscopically into the metal surface and is not a plating action. In fact I'd be wary of buying 12.9 bolts that were zinc plated, and would stick to ones with a black phosphate finish.

[Mr. Dazzle]

FWIW I know more than one OEM that won't use 12.9s unless there really is no other choice. When you are then in a situation where 12.9s are genuinely needed there's much more control on everything.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

You'll need a lot more than electro plating on a Lancia Beta body

[mangocrazy]

You'll need a lot more than electro plating on a Lancia Beta body

It's a service I provide. Mentioning 'Lancia Beta' so all the old '70s rust jokes can be exhumed and re-used. You're welcome.

The fact that pretty much every car from that era was a rust-bucket is conveniently forgotten. But it was only Lancia that did the right thing and bought back affected cars.

[Skub]

You'll need a lot more than electro plating on a Lancia Beta body

It's a service I provide. Mentioning 'Lancia Beta' so all the old '70s rust jokes can be exhumed and re-used. You're welcome.

The fact that pretty much every car from that era was a rust-bucket is conveniently forgotten. But it was only Lancia that did the right thing and bought back affected cars.

I remember the first Honda cars of that era,man they were shocking. The door bottoms were like lace curtains within 2 years.

[mangocrazy]

You'll need a lot more than electro plating on a Lancia Beta body

It's a service I provide. Mentioning 'Lancia Beta' so all the old '70s rust jokes can be exhumed and re-used. You're welcome.

The fact that pretty much every car from that era was a rust-bucket is conveniently forgotten. But it was only Lancia that did the right thing and bought back affected cars.

I remember the first Honda cars of that era,man they were shocking. The door bottoms were like lace curtains within 2 years.

I had a mini van that was more rust than clean metal. Likewise a Vauxhall Viva. It was the case that you bought a cheap SH car with a year's ticket, ran it for the year and then scrapped it. A friend bought a Vauxhall Cresta (I think) new. It looked great for a short while, then rust started appearing everywhere. It was scrap before it was 3 years old.

[Skub]

I had a mini van that was more rust than clean metal. Likewise a Vauxhall Viva. It was the case that you bought a cheap SH car with a year's ticket, ran it for the year and then scrapped it. A friend bought a Vauxhall Cresta (I think) new. It looked great for a short while, then rust started appearing everywhere. It was scrap before it was 3 years old.

They weren't built to deal with our good old road salt!

Cars have come a long way in terms of bodywork. Funnily enough,the worst examples I see these days are BMW and Audi.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

You'll need a lot more than electro plating on a Lancia Beta body

It's a service I provide. Mentioning 'Lancia Beta' so all the old '70s rust jokes can be exhumed and re-used. You're welcome.

The fact that pretty much every car from that era was a rust-bucket is conveniently forgotten. But it was only Lancia that did the right thing and bought back affected cars.

They didn't buy back my Beta Coupe (hardly surprising, it was 15 years old when I had it) worst car I've had for rot, looked lovely on the outside, but the monocoque had rotted across the floor and all the way up the door pillars to the point where the middle sagged, replaced it with a Fiat 131 Mirafiori Sport - the 2nd worst car I've had for rot, you'd thought I'd have learnt to stay away from 1970s Italian cars.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I had a mini van that was more rust than clean metal. Likewise a Vauxhall Viva. It was the case that you bought a cheap SH car with a year's ticket, ran it for the year and then scrapped it. A friend bought a Vauxhall Cresta (I think) new. It looked great for a short while, then rust started appearing everywhere. It was scrap before it was 3 years old.

They weren't built to deal with our good old road salt!

Cars have come a long way in terms of bodywork. Funnily enough,the worst examples I see these days are BMW and Audi.

You've not looked at many Mazdas then.

[mangocrazy]

You'll need a lot more than electro plating on a Lancia Beta body

It's a service I provide. Mentioning 'Lancia Beta' so all the old '70s rust jokes can be exhumed and re-used. You're welcome.

The fact that pretty much every car from that era was a rust-bucket is conveniently forgotten. But it was only Lancia that did the right thing and bought back affected cars.

They didn't buy back my Beta Coupe (hardly surprising, it was 15 years old when I had it) worst car I've had for rot, looked lovely on the outside, but the monocoque had rotted across the floor and all the way up the door pillars to the point where the middle sagged, replaced it with a Fiat 131 Mirafiori Sport - the 2nd worst car I've had for rot, you'd thought I'd have learnt to stay away from 1970s Italian cars.

Sounds like you had one that escaped the buy-back, or was re-sold illegally afterwards. All the affected cars should have been returned to Lancia and crushed, but some weren't. Having said that, 15 years out of a '70s car is pretty good going, I would have said. It was a great shame, the car's handling was head and shoulders above the competition of the time and the engine was excellent.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It was a lovely car when it was structurally sound, fortunately the engines fit in rear wheel drive Escorts very nicely with a Fiat 5 speed gearbox, a cheap way to get a reliable 140 bhp RWD Escort with a 5 speed gearbox.

[mangocrazy]

They also get fitted into Morris Minors... That then becomes a motor in search of a chassis, but...

A guy I know has a Beta Montecarlo that's supercharged and fuel injected and makes north of 300 bhp...

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

They also get fitted into Morris Minors... That then becomes a motor in search of a chassis, but...

A guy I know has a Beta Montecarlo that's supercharged and fuel injected and makes north of 300 bhp...

The race Beta Monte Carlos were 1.4s and made over 400bhp, not that they had much to do with the road car, they were the turbo Stratos in a different dress.

[mangocrazy]

They also get fitted into Morris Minors... That then becomes a motor in search of a chassis, but...

A guy I know has a Beta Montecarlo that's supercharged and fuel injected and makes north of 300 bhp...

The race Beta Monte Carlos were 1.4s and made over 400bhp, not that they had much to do with the road car, they were the turbo Stratos in a different dress.

Are you sure they were Turbo'd? The 037 was supercharged (Volumetrico) as I recall and the Stratos was a n/a Ferrari Dino V6 2.5 litre. Turbos only came in with the Group 4 Deltas (which were supercharged as well, for good measure).

[Cousin Jack]

They weren't built to deal with our good old road salt!

Cars have come a long way in terms of bodywork. Funnily enough,the worst examples I see these days are BMW and Audi.

Foreign makers still drop the odd clanger.

My first Lexus had alloy wheels that looked terrible within 12 months. At least they had the decency to replace them.

[David]

on your death bed do you want to be the man who taught himself electro plating or the man who paid some one to do it?

It depends, is it the electroplating that put me on my death bed?

Possibly, of course you could be like my father, make up anecdotes to impress other people, tell them so often that you end up believing them your self and believe you're the person you wanted to be when you die. Weirdly people believed his outlandish stories over the truth, he told people I was in the SAS, no matter how many times I deny it they don't believe me, I wasn't even in the Army.

But of course you would say that wouldn't you, and if you told the troof you would have to kill us.
That's what my mate Stephen Leather said, and he remembers you at Hereford

[David]

Many types of metal do that, which is why surface blocks it metrology labs must not be left in contact....molecules will migrate accross a contact patch and the two blocks become one....now try it with dissimilar metals and voltages get created (t's a fluppin battery, innit!) and see how long your nuts take to get froze.....