Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers

[Patrick H.]

Carolina Chemco. is still Alive

I called them this past Spring, and they were still in business, but under another name.

I just tried. The number is good, but I will contact him for all of us this week, and post more info.

He's got VERY good stuff.

Patrick

[Chuck S.]

Re: Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers

Lyle, I have gone back and forth on the hood latches. If they are not black phosphate, they are a VERY DARK gray. I believe either will work if the dark gray is VERY DARK gray. That means extending the zinc phosphate immersion time to get a very dark finish. The hood latches are one area where judges are likely to see the phosphate finish in outdoor judging if they are looking for it; the latches need to be right.

As far as what the bottle said, I can't remember that it said manganese phosphate, but the parts I refinished were definitely black. I don't remember Chemco offering more than one product at that time (1993?). Unfortunately, I just canned the remainder I had left; the good stuff had precipitated to the bottom of the bottle, so I figured it was worthless. I may have determined that the product was manganese phosphate in my conversation with the owner as he was telling me how to do the process.

I also purchased zinc phosphate from now defunct ASL in Sparks, NV. That unopened bottle has a label that says "zinc phosphate". The directions on the back of the bottle say "Color will vary with the amount of carbon in the steel from light gray to a dark black. We offer another product 'Quick Black' that can be used as a cold pre-dip if a darker color is desired." The fact that they offered another pre-treatment to get darker color said to me that zinc phosphate probably wouldn't yield the black finish. In conversation with the owner, he said that zinc phosphate was not the chemical needed for black phosphate, but it could be closely approximated by extending the immersion time.

[Dick G.]

Re: Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers

What is the problem with Eastwood's blackening kit, or whatever they call it?? I have used there zinc kit and it works great for me.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers

Dick, many products, including chemicals and paints, are offered that "blacken" parts. In Eastwood's description of their metal blackening system, they say "Now you can reproduce the OEM look of black oxide at home".

Black oxide is used on Corvettes, but not everything black on Corvettes is black oxide. In fact, most of the chassis small parts/fasteners that are chemically coated black are actually black phosphate. Black oxide is a smoother, low gloss finish, and does not have the characteristic appearance of phosphate as described in my previous post. Black phosphate is an almost perfectly flat, no gloss finish, particularly without the oil perservative.

[Harmon C.]

Re: Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers *NM*

[Harmon C.]

Re: Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers

Chuck The Corvette hinges I did with the Chemco judged fine and I am ordering from the site you found. I don't know how much to get as far as shelf life goes and will they be around when I need more who knows. Their is no better way to finish parts than the hot tank phosphate method. I use Eastwood cold blackening for a quick fix on bolts and washers. Thanks for the info. you made my day! Lyle

[Clem Z.]

parkerizing is what they do to flat tappet cams

is that the color you are referring to?

[John H.]

Re: Parker Chemical Co.

True "Parkerizing" is a carefully-controlled high-temperature process, commonly used to produce the armory finish on the exposed steel parts of military weapons.

[Clem Z.]

"parkerizing" try"google" for how to do at home *NM*

[Terry M.]

Re: parkerizing is what they do to flat tappet cam *TL*

I don't know Clem, as I am not that familiar with flat tappet cams. Also, it was almost 40 years ago when I was doing that work. While I can recall those times better than last week, there are still holes in my recall. I'll try John's suggested Google search and see what rings bells.

[Bob D.]

Re: Black Phosphate For Do-It-Yourselfers

Chuck, you are correct. The Caswell kit is black oxide. No sparkles in it, but it can be used in small applications in place of the phosphate. However, with this new kit you pointed out I'll have to get one and see what it looks like.