Cleaning up steel bolts

[azr]

Quick question. I'm doing a frame up on the 1000 and have buckets of steel bolts, some nice some not so nice. I've polished up lots of them on my 850 and have found that coating them with WD40 keeps the rust away for a short time but then I have to hit them with steel wool and WD40 again. Was wondering if anyone had a better idea (other than spending too much money of SS). Remember I live in BC not Arizona, lots of moisture up here.

[Steve]

Somebody here (I think its' one of the Chicago guys) has done some zinc plating at home with good results.

Hopefully somebody who knows who it is will see this and call it to his attention.

.

[TheCafeKid]

Quick question. I'm doing a frame up on the 1000 and have buckets of steel bolts, some nice some not so nice. I've polished up lots of them on my 850 and have found that coating them with WD40 keeps the rust away for a short time but then I have to hit them with steel wool and WD40 again. Was wondering if anyone had a better idea (other than spending too much money of SS). Remember I live in BC not Arizona, lots of moisture up here.

Uh...you can get an entire SS Allen kit from Z1 for like $35 or so, plus shipping. Unless you're going for bone stock show piece I'd take SS over Phillips or socket head straight steel any day of the week. You'll spend way more in time money and effort trying to replate old ones. Just my two geese though.

[azr]

I'm all with you on the SS sets, they're a great deal but don't cover 'every' bolt on the bike, only the covers, carbs, etc... I'm talking about all the others...engine mount bolts, wheel bolts, battery box, chain guard, ect...a few of these are painted but the majority are just steel. I'm guessing they may have been originally coated with something to stop them from rusting but now they are tarnished or slightly rusted. Just hoping to clean things up.

[TheCafeKid]

I'm all with you on the SS sets, they're a great deal but don't cover 'every' bolt on the bike, only the covers, carbs, etc... I'm talking about all the others...engine mount bolts, wheel bolts, battery box, chain guard, ect...a few of these are painted but the majority are just steel. I'm guessing they may have been originally coated with something to stop them from rusting but now they are tarnished or slightly rusted. Just hoping to clean things up.

Most were zinc plated if I'm not mistaken. One cheap way to go about it would be to soak em in evaporust then clean em with steel wool then coat em with high temp clear coat.

[Big T]

I think it's Nessism that's done the home plating - with very good results. Here's the link

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=144575&highlight=zinc+plating

[simon kuether]

I replaced them on my 'S with zinc plated high tensile ones . Cheeeeep .

Cheers , Simon .

[landshark]

I have found that some nuts and bolts shops are really well priced, others are extremely expensive.
Example:
I walk into 1 shop and ask for 10 stainless allen heads about 8mmX30mm with washers and they want $15 or so, where as another will do it for $2.

My cheap shop gave me every allen head and washer i needed for my carb rebuild (about 50 or so of each) for $10.

So if you arent going for ebay or an original show bike, shop around a little?
Just my 2 cents.

[Nessism]

Eastwood sells an inexpensive zinc plating kit if you don't want to go all the way up to the Caswell's kit. You could also just make your own kit but you will need to source the electrolyte chemicals. Personally, I do this if you can find them. The kits are over priced for what you get but the final results are nice.

[Hammered]

If youd prefer a black finish, Caswell has a nice, inexpensive Parkerizing kit Ive used in the past. Follow the link.

[sschering]

Quick question. I'm doing a frame up on the 1000 and have buckets of steel bolts, some nice some not so nice. I've polished up lots of them on my 850 and have found that coating them with WD40 keeps the rust away for a short time but then I have to hit them with steel wool and WD40 again. Was wondering if anyone had a better idea (other than spending too much money of SS). Remember I live in BC not Arizona, lots of moisture up here.

From the right sources SS bolts are not that expensive..

http://www.boltdepot.com/product.aspx?cc=25&cs=81&cm=19&cd=1317

If you get down into the Seattle area Tacoma Screw has excellent prices on metric stainless.

http://www.tacomascrew.com/locations

[Redneck]

My method may not be the cheapest but I just pick an area that needs new bolts or screws then go pick some up at my local hardware store each payday. I just do a few at a time. I know over the long run your right it will cost a lot more but when your only doing a couple at a time the cost is not too much each pay day. Like i said not the cheapest but to me the easiest to afford because outside the kits the pieces are so varied it doesn't really pay to buy in bulk...unless there is a lot i need to know, but i was basing that off using exact sizes from the microfiche.

Paul

[salty_monk]

How good is the corrosion resistance on that black finish? Every black finish I know of for bolts is usually pretty poor compared to Zinc. Looks good though...

[bluewool]

Hi, I see you are in Victoria, if you make it over to Vancouver there is Pacific Fasteners, on 1st avenue between Boundary and Gilmore, they a surly bunch but they have a massive inventory of metric stainless at very reasonable prices. I am sure there is an equivalent in Victoria, a place called Indufast but I have never dealt with them. Honestly ask a fisherman, they'll steer you away from the pleasure boat marine supply who will rob you for metric stainless.
You can also buy a cold galvanizing spray at any industrial supply store, it goes on grey and is very effective, and you can paint over it. You see it on chainlink fence posts where they weld the hinges on etc...