Working on getting my engine parts together for the rebuild and need a half dozen or so parts done and all the stuff I see locally is large or massive part number platers.I just need a little done and looked in the vendor spot with no success. Is there somebody trustworthy that does this for our 914 restos?

Check Bruce stone he may have the bits already done

Also, Eric Shea at PMB has been known to throw in misc. parts for gold cad or silver zinc plating when he does his caliper restorations, so call or email him at PMB to see if he still does that.

.... & if you're going to resto your brake calipers too, then you can send them all along to him in the same package - but take pix of every one & where it goes, cuz they'll get jumbled up at the plater in any case.

http://www.pmbperformance.com/teener.html


Tom
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OK Great! I will check them both.

If you would rather have it done locally, call one of the automotive restoration shops in town and ask them where they have their plating done. Unless they are jerks, they won't mind telling you.

I could really use a plater too. I have quite a bit of parts I need done.

Shaun (tru-6) on Early 911 S Registry does amazing work as well. Both yellow and clear zinc.

This is who I used. Chris is a great guy, and the prices were reasonable.

http://coloradoplating.com/

Bruce does but ive been trying to get him to send me 6 screws for the last 3 weeks to no avail so theirs that.

+1

Not many places do real Cad plating any more. It is still used in aviation and these guys are also known as aero propellor so they do it They are well regarded for their work.

Research places that do plating..
As has been mentioned, check with Restoration Shops.

The sources mentioned above usually are middle men..
They don't generally do the plating themselves.
They may clean your parts and then send them out to someone
who does the plating, at an extra cost..
A little research on your part Will get you to the source
and cut out the middle man.

Unless you have more than what will fit in a large priority flat rate box or 2, I would beg Eric to do it for you and pay him what ever he charges. If you find a plater who is willing to do small batches, for a reasonable price, does a good job, in a reasonable time and doesn't loose the parts, please let me know!

I'm about to send a batch, if you would like to be included.

sent you a pm joe

Some recent examples of Shaun's work on some of my parts.
Super nice.
He strips and bead blasts the parts you send him, so the plater has the best starting surface to work with.

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Again, if you want to pay someone to clean your parts and pay
to ship them both ways to a middle man, go for it.
A little due diligence on your part can cut out the middle man
and go right to the shop that does the work.

This isn't that difficult...

The plater he uses does good work.. I'm pretty sure it is a place outside Boston..

The plater I use asked for and has a stack of my business cards that they give to everyone who comes in with car parts. They hate them.

What I do isn't for everyone. My focus is high end restoration work and just packed up 45 lb of hardware from a 73S going back to Italy. It's also enthusiasts who have limited time and want the best possible plating. I don't just clean parts, there's no fun in that. My process is to clean off-the-car, dirty rusty parts, then strip them of all plating, sometimes soda or bead blast as needed, then tumble with a mild ceramic abrasive as the first stage in surface preps and them tumble with porcelain beads to gain the proper finish the customer requests, upon plating. If you are restoring a 914-4 or -6 to Hagerty 1 and don't want the bright zinc only available today, I can fix that. Or cadmium, nickel, chrome and bright dip+anodizing for bright aluminum trim.

In short, like painting a car, I am all about surface prep. This means the plating is the best it can possibly be and won't degrade quickly. Restoration shops send me junk re-plated parts all the time to be done again because these parts are typically a nuisance to most platers and are treated that way. And platers are known to lose things.

I also replace all Schnorr, wave and lock washers free of charge. These should never be reused.

A small sampling, apparently there's a limit in size.

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Thank you Doug! I love what I do and hope it shows.

I recently used :
Commercial Electro Plating
1937 S Cherry Avenue
Fresno, CA 93721-3305

$154 total
Shipping to them: $17

Zinc plating: $75 minimum charge (sounds like whatever fits into a 5 gallon bucket is the same price)

Oven bake afterwards: $50 minimum (they did the entire batch, only needed to high stress parts if you sent them all brackets and non-critical bolts no need for it)

Shipping back to me: $12

I sent them this:
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and this is how they came back:
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Nice parts Shaun...prep work sucks, I stopped caring after a while and I just wanted to get my parts sent out!

My next batch for my 914 will be nicer for sure.

Like I said.. Not that difficult to send to a plater directly.

Wonder the price difference ??????

We could only determine that knowing how much time he has in prep, what his time is worth and how many times it will have to be re-plated to equal the longevity of my plating.

Thanks, and that's it in a nutshell. Prep work does suck. I actually enjoy it but most people don't want to bother with it. Some of my customers value their time more than my additional cost in doing the dirty work which makes sense.

In the end, like painting a car, everything is surface prep. You either love it or hate it, but the results are proportionate.

Shaun-I assume you redid all of the plated parts on that 911S...would you mind sharing the approximate cost (and maybe the time it takes you to prep)? I'm really just curious as to the order of magnitude. Those parts look so nice!

Sure Jim. What I posted was a fraction of my work on the 73S and it was done in yellow cadmium, clear cadmium and black phosphate...part of what I offer is what parts should be plated how. Note that cadmium is about twice the cost of zinc. I'll try to post the entire picture set. I always do 10-40 pics per stage with a lot of close-ups and will post those later on.

The total bill was $3156 but qualified for a 10% discount so it was $2841. Note that this customer bought several "correct" bolts from me, some of his were wrong or not worth plating, a used heat control clamp and new door strikers ($100) that I pulled apart for the plastic and then installed in his. There were also 40 new, old style Norma clamps in there. You can also see extra latches in the pics. Note that ALL Schnorr, wave and lock washers, and many flat washers were new German hardware that is free but charged for plating. Same goes for all Nylocks.

This job took me an entire week to process and an entire day to pack, so about 50 hours. Every bolt's threads are individually cleaned by hand on a bench grinder. Everyone one.

First 5 pics, few more to come

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Here's some work that turned out really well. Again, yellow cadmium. These are going on a true 73 RS that was once a rally car.

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I just spent time on the phone with 3 local plating companies.

2 were willing to do cad plating of auto parts. If you clean the parts to remove grime and rust,you save money.
They both had a minimum charge, if you clean your own parts, it is aprox. 150.00 for a batch.
Both chemically strip the parts of any left over plating when they get them and then plate them.
They do work for the Military and Aerospace Industry, so I don't think quality is an issue.
The 150.00 minimum cost would be about what could fit in a 5 gallon bucket.
Your results may vary..

Just takes some time to clean parts, get them to the plater... and a few phone calls.

don't forget you need one of these. And at least 3 kinds of media.

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Actually, I asked specifically about tumbling..

They both said not necessary as they were going to chemically strip the parts anyway..

I've got all day...

Clearly. You don't tumble plated parts, you get that, right?

Like I said, what I do isn't for everyone.

My bad... you polish them real pretty after...

nice...

and yes apparently not for everyone...

Well, no.

You prep the surface of the metal under the plating to get the desired plated result, both aesthetically (glossy, satin, dull) and in longevity.

You don't tumble plated parts. You tumble parts stripped of all plating. I hope we're clear on that.

Dang, phenomenal work, I'd gladly send you my parts if I ever took my restoration* to the next level .

*who am I kidding, I'll never do a proper restoration!

Thank you, appreciate it! It's funny, I put so much more time and care into my customer's jobs than I do my own cars. I just want a beat up daily driver with tons of patina. But it is nice working with "brand new" parts.

I really want to thank you for coming here and taking your first posts educating us on what you do.

I hope we are clear on that..

Glad to hear you put so much work into customers cars.........

If you read between the lines, there's a lot of valuable information in there for anyone wanting to do this themselves, which anyone can, just a matter of scale.

Correct me if I'm wrong Shaun....but don't you individually wire each and every part? You don't tumble plate I'm pretty sure.

I remember getting back a load of plated parts for a Vespa restoration years ago from the local plater. He had wrecked the parts....I just threw them all away.....they were that bad.
[Wished I'd know you could have restored/repaired them at that time...]

There definitely is a dollar value added for someone that does the prep work and individual wiring of the parts.

It tells in your finished product.

In addition, I know you've spent a lot of time with your plater in getting just the right color, luster, etc.
You won't get that by just showing up at your local plater with a box load of dirty parts.

Thanks for the details Shaun! Your work looks awesome!

You're certainly out of my price range, but all of the details on surface preparation is really handy.

I was just on the phone with the shop that does Paul Russell
and Company's plating..

You think they do inferior work per chance ?

Nice people by the way..

Funny, I called Paul Russell Inc, and just asked who did their work..
They were more than happy to tell me..

You are correct, every single piece gets wired by hand, it's a ton of work. I have never tumble plated anything and don't expect that to change. It's an inferior process.

And yes, I have done a lot of testing and research to get just the right color though I'm still chasing the perfect MFI lines. Mine are too bright, too much like jewelry. Have a plan for that though.

When you consider how much prep time goes into the parts, I'm downright cheap. Now bright dip+anodizing window frames, that's where I'm working for pennies. Someday I'll raise my prices, maybe in a year or two.

Thanks Jim, I have customers send me small batches all the time where I'm very cost effective because I can batch dissimilar parts easily. Just got a set of spring plate hardware in the other day.

TDF does fantastic work, don't keep them a secret.

http://www.tdfmetalfinishing.com/

But if you give TDF parts vs. me giving TDF parts, mine will turn out better, there's no debate there.

Now I am confused. Easy to do to me BTW.

But, Paul Russell and Company does Pebble Beach winning restorations. So if you want that kind of thing, you will do better than that? Better than what is done on Bugatti's and Ferrari, and Ralph Loren's cars for our 914's?

I guess we need that........

I didn't read all the replies but "AndyS" did a fair amount on his build...

Gandalf - You got a big bone to pick...

Shaun - Beautiful work...if you were Eric Shea...half the people hear would be fawning over your parts. Keep it up! I also appreciate your "high-road" attitude...good job.

PS: That is NOT a knock on Eric - he's a perfect gentleman!

Tony

I would match my plating to Paul Russell's any day, yes. I don't know what their pre-plating process is but I imagine it's similar to what I do. And while I'm only a year old, I have done work for many 6 and 7 figure cars.

I was just contacted by a 4-cam 356 Speedster owner to refinish his parts.

If you come to Hershey, you can see my work in person.

Just reread and saw this. This concept is completely foreign to me. Sure, your average 914 doesn't have the same monetary value as an early 911S, or an RS, but I treat the parts exactly the same, because that's just what you do, and a 914 owner loves his car just as much, if not more, than an RS owner. Why should he be treated any less importantly than the owner of a high dollar car? Not in my book.

I also commend you on taking the high road here, and I commend you on the quality of your work and the effort it requires.

Ten minutes ago, I had never heard of you. Now, I would be sending my parts to you if I were restoring a six. But I have a four that will be converted to a six, so it is just a bit harder to justify that level of quality on my particular car. I think that is what wndsnd (and even gandalf in his own way) were saying. I may still send you some of my stuff, because I am not equipped to/nor do I like to do the work that you do.

Kinda like doing a $20k kitchen remodel that increases the value of your home by $10k.

Again, not taking away from your beautiful work, but I can see where the majority of us might not be your target audience. A lot of us pride ourselves on being CSOBs.

And BTW!

I'd also like to say welcome and that I appreciate you posting here. Your work is beautiful and I will be contacting you when it comes time in getting my plating done on my six restoration.

Thank you Gentlemen, appreciate the kind words.

In the end, I just love what I do and always strive to do my best.