project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[purplebargeken]

Magic!

[PhilA]

Further experimentation with strength of the solution to follow- the nickel seems to be pretty good weak. The copper was a bit strong for 3 volts so I'll try dilute it down a bit and try again with different voltages.

 

I may end up making a variable voltage thingy to drop the pd across the solution further. Apparently you can plate copper from about 0.6 volts on up. The stronger the solution, the more current passes and the crappier the finish and adhesion of the metal.

 

Phil

[Asimo]

Is that glowing bulb your current limiter?

[hairnet]

thats nuts

 

described what you are doing to yank owning workmate and he said brave but id have alu taped it

[PhilA]

Is that glowing bulb your current limiter?

No, that's just connected across the 5V rail of the psu. It won't come up without some load attached.

 

Thinking of it, I do have some resistance bulbs, I could try that.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Pulled the turn signal assembly out of the car.

 

 

It comes apart further, which is nice.

 

 

Scrubbed the thing down with the wire brush and dumped it into rust converter.

 

 

Forgot about a couple of exhaust manifold nuts that I'd left in the rust converter solution. Cleaned them up and, for giggles, put them in the nickel plating tank to see what will happen.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

My nuts are clean and shiny.

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Had a bit of a scrub at the reflector.

 

 

It's beginning to look better already. It's gone back in the ascorbic acid bath for the night. It will be subject to more wire-brushing tomorrow. I'll probably put some paint stripper on it to thoroughly clean any paint left on it off, then clean it in the bath galvanically, then have a go at plating it.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Ew. Oxidisation.

 

 

Compare to yesterday. Improvement.

 

 

To try and improve it further, it's in an acid solution to try and galvanically clean the surface.

 

It's still in there. I'm going to leave it a while. Fizz.

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Getting there.

 

 

Enough for tonight. Left the power supply running and the sudden spate of humid, warm rainy weather prompted another hatching of spiders, which all connected around the light. Ugh. Got maintenance at work overnight so I have no idea what shape I'll be in tomorrow but I'll try to do some more.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Flash rust. Left overnight, from yesterday.

 

 

All cleaned up with Dremel. Stuck it in acid bath to clean. Once it's fully clean, copper plating abound.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Plating occurs. Resistance lamps acting as a voltage divider.

 

Bonus, neighbor was throwing away a welding cart and asked if I wanted it. I now have a welding cart. Need to get a MIG welder to go in it now...

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

That's what you get when copper plates just a little too fast. It just wiped off.

 

Started over with more resistance to reduce the plating current.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Alright. For those of you who have tolerated this sidestep into alchemy, the (very nearly) end result, and the whole point of this endeavour:

 

 

Reflective surface where there was none before.

 

 

With the sidelight hooked up in a temporary fashion, the result is plain to see.

 

Phil

[LightBulbFun]

very cool to see I like me a good bit of Chemistry

 

(the lit picture kinda reminds of the old 1930s ESLA Streetlights    )

[Guest Hooli]

You're a bright spark ain't ya?

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

fantastic to see the end product works as expected (washer nozzles and plating) - I'm seriously learning (remembering stuff I'd lodged in the recesses) a load of stuff I'd never have given second thought to. You have re-awakened the mad scientist n a lot of us I think!  

Off to find stuff needing* plating!

[PhilA]

That reminds me, I should plate the nozzle screws. They'll go really rusty otherwise.

 

 

I didn't take a clear shot of how the reflector was before, but this is the best comparison I have.

 

I think that's an improvement. Considering it looks like the thing was painted white when it was new, an improvement still.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

Chemical genius

[vulgalour]

I assume the chemicals for this are fairly easy to get hold of.  It seems fairly common on the Youtube maker channels for non-UK folks to just plate all and sundry with all kinds of brightly coloured chemicals to make them shiny again.

[PhilA]

So, here's what I did.

 

Cleaning:

Obviously the metal was rusty, pitted and generally in bad shape. First was to run it down with low grit sandpaper to get the worst off, then scrubbed with a wire brush to get into the pits.

It was then soaked overnight in ascorbic acid (vitamin c) solution, scrubbed with a brass brush then left to soak again for the rest of the afternoon.

It was then put in a vinegar + salt solution and connected as the anode to draw the rest of the surface clean. It was wiped down and quickly placed in the plating tank because a highly clean surface like that will flash rust in a matter of seconds.

 

Copper plating:

I made copper (II) acetate as the electrolyte. Mix equal parts of distilled white vinegar (acetic acid) of 5% strength minimum and hydrogen peroxide. Doesn't have to be exact but measuring in a cup or measuring jug is fine. Place a copper pan scrubber into the solution and leave it to dissolve. Once it's a nice sky blue (if you leave it too long it gotta a really dark blue) remove the scrubber pad. Take a second clean pad and twist one end up into a teardrop kind of shape- this forms a connection point out of the solution else the clip and wire will pollute the copper electrolyte.

Place the object to be plated as far away from the scrubbing pad as possible. Connect up with the lowest voltage you can- this can easily be done with a D cell battery. It'll work down to about 0.6 volts. The scrubbing pad connects to + and the item to be plated to -.

You must keep the item being plated moving else you'll get uneven plating.

If you have too much current you'll get black greasy gunk form on the object. Wipe off and try again with a smaller battery. Slightly too fast and you'll get burgundy flaky layers that flake off.

Just right and you'll get pale pink coating that doesn't wipe off.

 

Nickel plating:

I went to the hardware store and bought 99% nickel welding rods, they're used for welding cast iron.

Use distilled vinegar, add a pinch of salt (don't go overboard) make 2 nickel electrodes and put one to + and one to -, not touching and put them in the vinegar.

I found that 5 volts gives reasonably good results, less would be better (about 1 volt). Leave the nickel to dissolve. The molar strength of the vinegar is inadequate to dissolve the nickel by itself so it needs some electrolytic help.

Once the vinegar has turned pale mint green (takes a couple hours) you're good. That is nickel acetate. Disconnect the - nickel electrode and connect your item to be plated, and dunk it in. It'll fizz, so you don't really need to move it about. Takes a couple hours to plate over. Remove, wash in water and buff with brasso to a nice sheen.

 

 

Now, note this. Copper II acetate is poison! Treat it with respect. Wear glasses and gloves and wash thoroughly if you get it on your skin (you'll know if you have, it stains brown). Store it in a sealed labeled jar clearly marked POISON. Keep it away from children and pets. Likewise nickel acetate, it is toxic.

 

Also note that you will release hydrogen gas, a little bit of chlorine gas and some oxygen. Do this in an outside, well-ventilated area. This is not something to do in the kitchen!

 

However, take care and you can produce some really good results.

 

 

Phil

[hairnet]

Headsplode

[DodgeRover]

Do kids in the states now get taught useful stuff like this at school or is it something you have picked up?

 

We talked about the theory but never got to do practical application of it.

[anonymous user]

*GCHQ*

 

..... watching & listening ......

That's why we run things through tooSavvy and hairnet, they'll never break the code, it's more difficult than anything an Enigma machine could produce

[purplebargeken]

Cool!

[PhilA]

Do kids in the states now get taught useful stuff like this at school or is it something you have picked up?

We talked about the theory but never got to do practical application of it.

Some of this gets taught here, if you go on far enough in school.

 

I learned the principles of this (and how to work it all out in chemical formulae) in school back in the UK. I was 14. Been a while since I have had to dredge all this up...

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Backplate shiny enough.

 

 

Back of them painted because, well, they don't need to be plated.

 

It got cold here, so that's gonna take a while to dry.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

All back together and given a bit of a buff.

 

 

Bench test. Successful.

 

 

Back on the car.

 

 

Compare the driver's side- just lights up by the bulb.

 

 

Repaired reflector all illuminates evenly. Looks good!

 

 

And finally, in the sun. All shiny. Not black any more or kinda gray.

 

Happy with that

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

So, with pleasant weather here for a day or so I started work on tidying up the engine bay.

 

 

Jacked the car up, ran out of jack before the wheels left the ground. The car has massive suspension travel.

 

 

With access to the wheel arch, I removed the crappy battery tray holding the 12V battery.

 

 

I also removed the old 6V lower battery bracket because I don't intend on having the battery under the hood any more.

 

 

A large amount of access now. But man is it ever dirty. I broke my good medium length extension bar. Bought some new ones at Auto Zone.

 

 

With everything removed, I pushed the front of the car outside.

 

 

Had a good go at it with the pressure washer, then put my leaf blower on it to dry it down.

 

 

Steering box!

 

 

Compared with before, better. Still need to get in there and clean more but that's a start.

 

Phil

[loserone]

Good work, I'm so pleased you got this because it's an excellent thread and looks like a marvelous car.