Recommended Nickel - Yellow Passivate Platers.

You can buy kits to do passivated zinc plating yourself. My son used one when restoring his 916 Strada with excellent results.

 

I'll ask my son for details about the kit he used.

 

Could you post your findings for all to see, some may find the results of interest.

 

please post on here!

thx
Grant

 

Lets all post our nuts to Dereks son.

 

He purchased a kit off eBay. The original listing is long gone but this is the same one which, after a bit of research, he decided was the best on offer. It is pretty pricey but if you are doing a whole bike's worth of bits or several bike's worth then it pays for itself.
The kit includes all the chemicals you need, electrodes, tanks etc. It does not include a power supply just a resistive kit that you could at a push use with a battery charger. However, current control is critical. Too little current and there is insufficient cover. Too much and the surface turns black. Niall reckons that it is worth spending the extra cash on a variable power supply so that the current can be fine tuned. The current will depend on the size of the items you are plating and he found by trial and error the best current for the items he was plating so that after he had done a few he had a pretty good idea how much current was required. For a dozen or so screws and bolts wired together generally around 1A.
He also recommends that everything is thoroughly cleaned and de-rusted first. He used this stuff to remove the rust.

I haven't any pictures showing details of the plating but if you look at the screws for the heel plates, chain guide and subframe fixing in this pic you will get an idea of the finish.

 

He also says
"I also soaked everything in this rust remover with hot water for a good few hours first. They need to be completely clean before hand. Wire brush on a drill before hand is a good idea"
and
"1 amp and 12v seemed to be quite good for about 10 bolts or so"

 

I use Protech finishing in Northampton. Zinc, nickel, anodise all very good and reasonably priced. I just did a rear damper. Had most of it hard anodised and zinc gold passivate. 20 pounds for the lot.

 

I have used these people on several occasions for complete restoration on my Ducati's and also my RD250LC which has three different types of finish, they matched all the colours very well.

Redditch Electroplaters.

http://www.redditch-ep.co.uk/

 

I always post my items to them and they are very well organised, it's a family-run business.

 

@buzzer your knowledge is needed here

 

Redditch

 

I have done both... used a DIY kit from Gateros plating https://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/ and also had some done by Redditch shot blasters who I know puts the plating out, but I usually take the frames and wheels there to be powder coated as they do the BEST job i have ever seen! the plating I have had done there has been excellent, and cheap for quite a large batch.

I have also had success with the DIY kit, which is useful for the parts you forget, and also things like oil and brake lines which you perhaps don't want in a commercial bath! Doing a lot of plating a few items at a time is very time consuming, so I now do both, send the bulk out, and do bits and pieces myself. I do yellow and silver, but be aware that the yellow passivate gives MANY times the corrosion protection of the silver. if you buy a kit, you will also need a cheap aquarium pump to bubble air through the solution to provided some agitation. Gateros are very helpful... here are a few pictures...

this lot was £35...



my home set up



some oil pipes being plated



the results



makes such a difference to a build...