Thousands of black screws, nuts, and bolts...

OK, I bought a black oxide kit from eastwood and I'm prepared to meticulously, and quite tediously, refinish all the black oxide fasteners I have. The kit works moderately well, but I'm concerned about the longevity of the finish.

Anyone else have a better idea for restoring black fasteners? Flat paint?

Thanks.

 

Ken
Have you considered taking them all to a plating shop. They would probably just charge you so much a pound. Just a thought

 

Hey Jim-

Thanks for the response. Actually, I work in industry and we deal will suppliers for black oxide service. I'm sure I could get the whole lot done for cheap, maybe even free. My concern is that I'll get a big box of mixed fasteners back that I'd have a hard time sorting out. Worse, some will go missing. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'm trying to keep them in my control.

Thanks for the thought!

 

Ken--by now someone should be able to hand you a random bolt off of a Buick and have you identify exactly where it goes(or at least get close)! :Brow: Patton

 

LOL-

I'm getting there Patton!

 

Ken, I have similar concerns about the long-term performance of the blackening! I sure don't want to have to disassemble the car AGAIN to redo the fasteners!

I'm using a process from Caswell Plating....
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/index.html
Periodic treatment of black oxided parts with WD-40, or a wax-based sealer will extend the life of the black oxide.
In their forum, it's stated parts can be painted with clear after blackening. You just need to clean the sealer from the part before painting.
Caswell also offers a blackener which is used after plating the part with zinc. (see their 'copy cad' and zinc kit) It will add a bit more coating thickness than the black oxide. The zinc coating should last much longer.
I've tried powder coating bolts, but it goes on too thick....But there was a poster (on V8 Buick) which used a teflon powdercoat, and had good results. Another mentioned a moly coating.....I like that idea, and hope to give that a try someday.

When I do a larger quanity of fasteners, I either string them together with wire, or screw them into hardware cloth, mesh, or screening.

Anyone have more info on hi-tech-moly coatings?

 

If you decide to send them out for plating then take a couple hours when you are pulling bolts and make a "map" of their locations. For example, on my car I just made drawings of each component (ie - firewall, core support,etc) on a large piece of cardboard and marked the location of each fastener. Then near each location I listed the bolt size (get a bolt measuring guage) and the marking from the head of the bolt. When you get them back in bulk form you start going through them and placing them back on each piece of cardboard (punch holes in the cardboard near each bolt listing)....put 'em in a box and the bolts, screws, etc and now you can pull out the particular piece of cardboard when you are ready to reassemble each component.

BTW, this will get you to the point of having pretty much all the bolts memorized. Frankly, it will take you back to some of those memory type games you played as a kid. Keep in mind this mind exercise is well advanced from the old hammer-the-block-or-dowel-into-the-right-hole-on-the-wooden bench deal but after a while you may feel like doing that anyway :Brow:

Save the cardboard pieces for your next GS project!

Hmmmm---sounds like a good business idea----heavy duty cards with the drawings and holes already in them, bolt sizes, etc marked on the cards. Maybe even properly threaded holders for each location (ie- coarse sheet metal screw threads or regular or fine machine screw threads). Remember---these A bodies are somewhat generic as far as bolt locations go (on some components). This is the time to do it with all the resto craze going on right now. Just need to come up with a catchy name and get the product "placed" on a few strategic shows and magazines. Anyone got a good, catchy product name we can use???? Patton

 

Patten, Great idea!.....but how about also including the proper fasteners...THAT would sell!
I did come across a vender at a local swap meet that offered correctly marked fasteners for restoring a chev....checkout 'Ground Up' at wwwSS396.com
Many of these fasteners are identical to our Buicks.
BTW, my digital camera does a better job than any drawings I could do!

 

Dude, post pictures...I can pretty much tell ya where all the hardware goes on a 71 or 72 GS anyway.... (yeah I know, get a life!!! It just kinda happens with a frame off or two).

later
Tim

 

Ummm. I thought I was anal about keeping my cars clean. But I can't get my arms around the idea of disassembling the car a second time to make the black fasteners blacker. Now that's what I'd call meticulous.

Tim, maybe you're the answer man for the various loose screws that seem to show up on my carpet from time to time!

 

Send pictures and we'll see!!! :laugh:

later
Tim

 

Hey Guys-

Been away from the board for a coupla days...

Mike, my car is currently disassembled, and believe me I will not take it apart for the second time for fastener finish. LOL! When this car goes back together, it ain't ever coming apart again!

Walt, I'll check out the link. The Eastwood product works only so-so, in my opinion.

I may just do what Patton said and then take a photo of the parts labeled on a piece of cardboard. Perhaps I'll send a small run out to the black oxide supplier and see how they come out and if I get everything back! It'll be a lot charge anyway, but I don't feel comfortable about sending all my fasteners out without some kind of confidence in the supplier.

Thanks guys!

 

Name this bolt...

OK Tim-

What do we have here? (no fair looking at the picture file name)

:laugh:

 

Ken,that is called a carriage bolt.

 

Bumper bolt? I know, I know, my name isn't Tim.

 

Dude-

I have a four year degree in engineering, I know what a carriage bolt is! :laugh: I'm testing Tim's ability to name bolts to their locations. It's all in fun...

The question is, from where on the car???

Bumper bolt is close!

 

Can I play? :laugh:

Beth :grin:

 

Anytime, Beth!

And might I say that's one fine looking bolt you have there. :bglasses:

 

Gee thanks Ken,
Now where does that fine looking bolt go. :laugh:

Beth

 

I'm sorry Ken-I misunderstood what you meant. That bolt goes from the bumper bracket to the bumper(it goes on the bottom of the bumper).