I would like to in ject my 2 pence worth on the sublect of replacement TR6
bonnet
latches. The one I got had the familiar 'cad' plating, however was a vastly
inferior piece. It bent so often and then broke about 3 months after I put it on
the car. My solution? Silver solder the old one and put it back on the car. It's
worked like a charm the past 6 years. Oh and, silver solder? Try it some time-
you'll be amazed at the results.
Jeff Johnson
'76 TR6
rgb@exact.com wrote:
> >It should be zinc plated.
>
> There is a silver color zinc plating and a gold colored, usually
> called "cad" plating.
>
> >Try a chrome plater. It might be worthwhile getting a new one.
>
> Generally the folks that do chrome plating differ from the "zinc"
> plating places. The "zinc" places I've seen are little hole-in-the
> wall places which handle alot of new manf parts from various companies.
>
> The "chrome" places seem to be more "auto" related and large installations.
>
> I have experimented with tie'ing bolts with lock washers and washers
> attached with copper wire, three wraps in the area to be covered with
> the nut. The latest scheme is a piece of copper sheet with holes
> drilled for the various size bolts. This works well for sand blasting
> and dipping the parts (must pass electrical current, hence the copper
> wire or sheet). Latest design is a copper piece with a rolled edge
> which "hangs" on the metal bar to suspend the parts in the solution.
>
> Oh, back to the original question, most everything under the hood, in
> fact the whole car is "gold" in color. Many of the new items such as
> the hood latch piece that bolts to the hood (bonnet) is zinc and cad mixed.
> The new one is a much lighter gauge metal with weaker feeling spring/assembly.
> A replated old one is MUCH preferred.
>
> There are several other items that come painted black which were originally
> plated, etc. Not to mention the date codes on the items like door latch
> plates. Its much better to plate the original vs. inducing unknown quality
> pieces if at all possible.
>
> Note the trunk lid rod has a date code, same for wiper motor top plate...
>
> Anyhow, a good "cad" plating place and recover most everything, the local
> place charges $45 minimum, i.e. the whole car worth of pieces... another
> batch in "zinc" completes this process.
>
> As for the hood latch that bolts to the tub... was this really silver
> color? I do not know... The OEM gold seemed to wear off quickly,
> so its difficult to tell on any exposed area. All those washers holding
> the pedal box were "cad"... ditto for lots of the other pieces you
> usually see in "zinc".
>
> Roger
>
> --
> Roger G. Bolick, rgb@exact.com 512-794-9567, FAX 512-345-2879
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