Newbie here with a question. Any of you recolored the old Ford/Holley carbs with chromate, not paint? Would like to hear from any one who's done it and willing to share secrets.
Welcome. The standard procedure is to degrease the parts,and rinse with water. Then let the parts soak in an alkaline solution for 15 min. Rinse again. Then dip the parts for a few seconds in chromic acid.Then rinse well with hot water. The exact concentrations will require some experimentation. Caustics,and acids require extreme care in handling,and can be very dangerious,if mixed together!!! Good luck. Sparky
It's not quite the same but it beats paint: Local shop that rebuilds carbs in large quan***ies sends buckets of parts to a local plater to be plated with "yellow zinc". I've had a couple done that way and also in "yellow cad" but it's hard to find anybody who still does cad.
If you want an "old and kind of used" look, here's what I did: Soaked my 97's in parts cleaner/degreaser for a few weeks. It took most of the original plating off. Then, after dis***embly, scrubbing, aligning, filing, and such, I soaked the carb bodies in Alodine for a few minutes. Then rinse well with water. Alodine is a metal etch for aluminum. It will color the 97's, but is not really a coating/plating. It gives a kind of grayish/brownish/greenish look.
What if you blast them to get em clean...Can you blast them and then soak in alkaline etc..etc...?? Also, where does one get the "alkaline" and "chromic acid"?? tok
Yes you can blast them clean.Gl*** beads will do best.Alkiline wash is just lye,and water(to degrease) or plain old oven cleaner. The chromic acid will be harder to obtain,as the EPA,and other fed's have restrictions on its use. A collage chemestry geek might be able to abscond a small sample(wink wink ) you can get it pelletized,and dilute with water. Good luck, and Be very carefull Sparky
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