I got everything off the parts car. I can tell the bars should be powder coated...

What about the hardware? it's not powder coated and if its painted it was painted clear. It doesn't look painted though...was it coated with something?

some rust on most of the hardware but not real bad considering everything has been outside for the last 5 years.

None of it was originally powder coated that I know of. I don't even think they had powder coating back when these cars were made.

Much of the hardware would have been cad plated or zinc plated.

--DD

Cad or zinc plated...that makes sense.

The bars have some kind of black coating on them. some of it is peeling off, it looks like a plastic coating...I guess it could be some type of paint.

Dave is correct - no powder coating back then. Most of the non-painted black stuff was black oxide coating - e.g.: at the engine mount bar, lug bolts (alloy lug bolds were silve zinc plated), etc.

If it's plastic-like & peeling .... & if the underpan is black undercoated, then it's probably the black dealer undercoating overspray, as they didn't usually bother much with masking!

... you can always tell dealer vs. factory undercoating by the overspray, since the factory undercoated a bare shell.

If so, then clean that off & try to determine the original finish, and if not answered here in the Garage, maybe try the question by part (include pix) in the Originality & History Forum, since many parts had different factory finishes - although usually in groups (like engine tins, J-tubes, ECU brackets, etc. painted satin black as a group).

BTW - Thanx for all of your Parts Vault postings!

The black coating, which is peeling is just on the bars. ne dealer undercoat...the front bar is inside the fuel tank area. the other parts are probably zinc coated.

The bars don't seem to be painted but they are shiny and the part that peeled off came off in a 1" x 1/2" section

I Zinked my parts and I even Zinked the ends of the bar that was not painted!

Those are awesome

where/who or how do you do the zinc coating

Any plating shop will do them. Be advised they typically have a minimum charge (around here it's about $75.), so try to plate as much stuff as possible at one time.

Check with your local buds to see if they need anything plated and you can split the cost?


I painted my torsion bar black and had the rest of the components plated CAD-1, like Jeff did.

Now I just need to install all of it


P.S. Clean everything the best you can, as some shops don't do a very good job of cleaning. I blasted everything before letting them have it.

I cad plated the a-arms before having powder coated. Iv see rust come out on powder coated hotrod parts.

There is also a black zinc option. Looks great.


jeff