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I believe you will find that Zink Chromate is a light puke green color. Maybe you are thinking about Cadmium Plate which is a very flat "silverish" color
Location: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Posts: 24,525
Is it for a concourse restoration or a nice show car. I painted mine satin black. Looks good, and as we know, black goes with everything.....
We're these even painted from the factory? Back then the norm was to replace a car every 3-4 years.
Sorry, my bad they were Zinc Phosphate from the factory. Eastwood makes a Zinc Phosphate color - as close as you will get without re coated them with zinc phosphate - which you can do at home but a lot of work for basically the same look
Thanks to all. Zinc Phosphate sounds good to me!!
I do agree with a good ol satin black does go with anything but Zinc Phosphate looks good too. I am trying to keep it stock looking. Maybe the hood hinges looking stock is just a little bit of OCD popping through for me.
I've used the do-it-yourself phosphating kits, also called parkerizing kits. Although the color seemed to be correct, the finish was easily wiped off and and was greasy. I plated some nuts & bolts and had the grey stuff all over my hands just from handling the parts. I've had better success using Rustoleum Metalic spray can paint (see pic).
The "Dark Steel" color is a close match for zinc phosphate. "Flat Antique Nickel" is also a good choice for bare steel looking parts. All can be purchased at Home Depot.
I believe the hood hinges all through those years were a dark grey color. Here is a '68 hood hinge I "restored" a few years ago. I knew the original color on it was a dark grey but the spring was a slightly lighter color. What I did was remove the spring from the hinge, bead blast both, and then paint the hinge cast metal gray and the spring a color called "stainless steel". It turned out pretty good, I think. And that's what I did for both my '68 and '69 cars. They've been restored for several years now and still look brand new. If you don't want to spend the extra money for the true, actual finish, doing it this way is an economical option.
What I did was remove the spring from the hinge, bead blast both, and then paint the hinge cast metal gray and the spring a color called "stainless steel".
Randy C.
Randy,
Do you remember the brand name for the paint?
X2 with Steven, hinges were grey phospate and not natural. Very few items on these cars were natural, the things that were, usually had some kind of coating so they would not rust for a while. If you looked under the hood, they didn't want you to see rust at the dealership. I don't think they cared how long it lasted, though. A few other things that come to mind are the master cylinder and the auto trans pans. They were "natural" but both had something on them.
Grey phosphate is correct. I can't remember if I did mine with grey phosphate or cast iron grey. The springs I just wire wheeled and sprayed with satin clear. The grey phosphate I have used is also from Eastwood.
Like 442FRED said, natural. They were "washed" with an anti-rust inhibitor which did not last to long. Depending on how well they were done the "wash" lasted 6 months to a year. I installed an NOS set on my 70 F85 W31 and they are just now starting to show signs of some flash rust.
Call it semantics, but "washed" with chemicals or coated is not natural. I suppose if you trailer everywhere, natural is ok. I drive my cars like 2-3K a year in driving rain sometimes to shows, if they were natural, personally...I prefer something on them.
Parkerizing, bonderizing, phosphating, or phosphatizing is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of a chemical phosphate conversion coating. - Definition from google. This finish can range from jet black to grey and can be clear. This is the same finish used on US Military weapons like the M1 Garand. M1's often look green due aging in cosmoline. Gun smiths can apply this type of finish and you can buy kits from Brownells. Tom
Call it semantics, but "washed" with chemicals or coated is not natural. I suppose if you trailer everywhere, natural is ok. I drive my cars like 2-3K a year in driving rain sometimes to shows, if they were natural, personally...I prefer something on them.
Ok so they were washed with a rust inhibitor but it did not change the color of the hinge.
My suggestion is paint them which ever color you want it won't be correct.
Cast blast also looks like phosphate if you are so inclined
the outside manufacturer put just a very light coat to keep assembled parts from flashing rushing. my nos hinges were poorly covered and you could clearly see bare metal. I think gray phos. is the best coating and the best match. thinking of doing mine gray phos as they are getting funkie looking. also considering a wash of the hinges using an acid based product that removes light rust and coats them.
Last edited by davebw31; September 15th, 2017 at 03:42 PM.
September 14th, 2017, 05:50 PM
