Refurbishing nuts. bolts and misc hardware

I'm looking for ways to refubish some of the misc. hardware on my truck. As with any old vehicle, most of the nuts & bolts are rusty or covered with 5 layers of old paint. I'll just buy new hardware for standard nuts, bolts washers etc, but there's lots of oddball stuff I'll need to keep.

I'm thinking of using something like the vibrator/tumbler from Harbor Freight for initial cleanup, then chasing the threads with a tap/die.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93252

To get some sort of protective coating, I've found a zinc plating kit from Caswell.

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zinc.htm

This along with a power supply is gonna run $250 or more.

Who else has done this? Is there a better/cheaper way to go?

Chad, you might check this system out from Eastwood.........it's only $ 70 and from the enclosed video looks like it works pretty well.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...erID=49&KICKER


Don

Cool - that system looks perfect for my needs. The caswell setup looked a little bit like overkill. I can already picture myself polishing bolt heads while watching Mythbuster re-runs :)

Thank you.

try soaking them in a diluted muratic acid (from swimming pool supply store) mixture, then neutralize with baking soda. Be careful with this stuff, don't get it on you or breathe it. It will remove surface rust and pretty much anything else. Treat the cleaned parts/bolts/whatever with something as soon as they are dry or they will start rusting quick.

The tough part is prepping the parts to be re-plated. I have a vibratory polisher that came with "de-rusting" media. I tried leaving the hardware in there for up to a week, and it still wasn't clean. What i wound up doing was sandblasting the parts, and then polishing them on a wire wheel. It's quite time consuming, but the results are great.

I have one of those Eastwood zinc electroplating kits and am very disappointed with the results. It seems like the coating is just too thin. When I polish them, I'd rub through to bare metal almost every time. I've experimented with different durations and even stepped up the voltage, but I just couldn't duplicate the look and durability of the original zinc plating.

To make a long story short, I found that having parts professionally zinc plated wasn't nearly as expensive as I had thought. I usually bring in about 150-200 pieces of stripped and polished hardware, they plate the lot of them in 2-3 days, for less than $100.00. They can also do yellow zinc and black.

Just thought I'd throw my two cents in...hope it helps.

Joe G

I just used new bolts in the metals of my choice ,I looked into refurbishing hardware ,but unless its a restoration,just use matching new hardware for less time and hassle............
I used stainless and yellow zinc coated soo far ......I was able to use which ever head style I wanted in almost any material wanted.
If I were to do any restorations of nuts and bolts at home ,I would use the vibratory polisher and apply a plating such as uses electricity to bond the plating to the fastener ,rather than a spray can of coating.

get your self a mcmaster -carr book they have just about every nut and bolt you could need they have alot of other stuff . they may not be the cheapest they are great to get it ship right out . when i did my 50 chevy i made the hood hinge bolts and hardware and used button head SS and buff them you do not have to go his far but i was happy to not use then damn clutch screws again

Dang it. Every time I get a hairbrained scheme, theres always a bunch of people using logic, experience and common sense to talk me out of it! I'll probably get the HF cleaner anyway, since i'm a chinese tool addict.:D

I'm waffleing on the $70 kit. For that price, it might be fun to play with, even if it doesn't work as good as promised.

Muratic acid or vinegar. Soak, rinse, dry, prime, paint.

I put a Die grander in a vise with a small cup wire wheel and clean them . Run it at lower speeds thru regulator . It does a quick job but takes awile with so many . Did this to reuse original bolts on stang