Patcon

That was a bargain at todays prices! Even if it's rusty...listing is already down.

Thanks Chris, I am really close to having results as good as the shipment I already had professionally plated. If it doesn't improve from here I will still be happy... For posterity there are little things that can trip you up: The metal needs to be degreased before bead blasting or wire wheel work or you just spread the grease around The shinier the piece is before plating the better it will look when plated If the metal is pitted it's going to be pitted after plating There are ways around this but I haven't gotten to that level yet You need to calculate your areas accurately and use a timer to get consistent results I know there are some DIY methods for solutions but I didn't feel like trying to reinvent the wheel (that sounds a little insulting but is not meant to be I just have too many irons in the fire already and wanted the path of least resistance). The Caswell chemicals can get expensive, especially if you are dipping larger parts but over all I will break even or probably come out ahead considering I have several cars that need this kind of attention. I prefer plating myself because I can do things in really small batches and not have to loose fasteners or pull together a large order then sort them after plating... I noticed something today... I think it was Motorman7 who commented at some point that the yellow chromate finish is fragile when it is new. I found this to be the case today. After an hour or so I was messing with the bolts I plated. I could scratch the yellow off down to the blue chromate with my finger nail. I will let them harden for a few days and see if this persists. I have been letting the blue chromate dry before the yellow because I didn't want to contaminate the yellow chromate. I may have to dip wet to wet for the yellow to adhere properly...

Listen to Steve, he knows electricity!!!

Why are you worried about the material takeoff on the journal? It doesn't materially effect the strength of the crank. Any crank you buy will need crack checking, polishing and possibly turning? All part of the deal. If you're interested PM me, I have two...

Maybe one of our resident engineers will chime in but my understanding of fuses is they are heaters in reverse. Pull too much current and they heat up which melts the element breaking the circuit. If the over current is small it takes longer for the fuse to reach melting temperature before it let's go...

@SteveJ Baseline voltage 12.80v 12.20v 12.03v Checked fuses for continuity. Both are good... RB 11.7v RW 11.71v Lots of movement on the meter. Hard to make good contact. Voltages all over the place. I let it sit for a second and it settles at these voltages RB 12.07v RW 12.06v I used the ground in the relay harness plug. All beams burn, which I assume is high beams because the inside lamps are high beams only, but they are not very bright even though the battery shows 12.60v with them on... Same test with the RW jumpered I get the same results. On a whim I checked the voltage across the back of one of the high beams, it was barely glowing, 1.80v?? Are the low beams feeding back into the high beams looking for ground?

This is after the yellow chromate I dipped the bolts for 25 seconds and the washers for 20 seconds Then I lightly rinse with a spray bottle. If you get too aggressive you can rinse the chromate off. Shake the excess off. If it puddles and beads it will make dark spots. For things that really matter I dry them with light compressed air to keep them even...

@Namerow this is todays effort, more skid steer bolts started with some bolts with surface rust bead blasted Lightly buff them against a wire brush on the grinder. If you use too much pressure it gouges and scratches the part up. If the pressure is light it makes them shiny. Into the crock pot with SP degreaser. RINSE Then I dip them in Muriatic acid for a pickle dip for 20-30 seconds. They pretty much quit fizzing when I pull them out. RINSE After plating 30 minutes at the calculated .15 amps/in This is a second batch plated for 30 minutes. I ran these a little higher to try to burn them a little bit RINSE I bought some blue chromate a few weeks ago. This is what it does. I intentionally dipped them only part way to illustrate the affect This is a 60 second dip in blue chromate Then I let them hang until dry

This is some of the hardware I plated last week These large bushings and washers came out really good too... This hinge plate is a little dark but isn't burnt on the top edge like the picture makes it appear This bar came out really good. Obviously some of these parts are not Z parts. They are off the skid steer I'm working on...

I believe the dimmer has just 2 wires, correct? If so unplug and stick a jumper wire across it. If the fuse blows it's not in the dimmer. If the fuse holds and the dash lights are on and all the way up, the dimmer is bad...

I'm not sure she's the only one...

I doubt it is the dimmer, some where down stream of there...

Can't upload pics. Tried a work around but it posted an empty reply...

I missed that earlier... You could figure out the connections to jump at the combo switch plug and just bypass the combo switch with jumper wires. that would isolate the combo switch...

It will happen because the government wants the band width for other things. That is how we got digital broadcast tv. They sold the old TV frequencies to companies for other uses...

I believe you have a short somewhere! If it was mine I would unplug all the exterior lights and anything else I could get off the circuit. See if the fuse will hold then. Add one thing back at a time until you figure out where the short is. You could also change some of the exterior bulbs to LED. This circuit has a lot of load compared to the wire gauge Dave Irwins parking light relays will help once you find the problem

Congrats. Lower those scores and put some miles on that car...

Would love to make Toronto but it's not going to happen this year...

I may have found a solution for you...

I agree, I would resweat the pickup line in or use a sealant. It seemed to work pretty well as you didn't seem to have symptoms from the original patch. Clean tanks are getting harder to find...

I think I made some real progress on this last weekend. I will try to do some samples and make some good pictures and I will elaborate on my technique...

Of Course!

Even if I work it out you are always most welcome here!!!

@Diseazd @siteunseen I was looking on classic auto trader the other night. I was blown away by what people were listing cars for. Site I am sure you are under insured and Guy knowing the condition of your cars you are probably close to $10k per car short of where prices seem to be or will be shortly...