Voltage regulators and horn relay Plating

[John M.]

Im trying to find out how the restorers re cad plate the bases on regulators and horn relays, how about capacitors ? the regulators I have had restored show no signs of being taken apart and re riveted do they dip the whole thing....Thanks in advance..John

[Barbara S.]

Re: Voltage regulators and horn relay Plating

John. I went through this about 2 months ago with the horn relays. You may want to check the archives. The covers of the horn relays are not shiny. They tend to be a bit more gun metal.

Tony

[Gerard F.]

Horn relay Plating

Jonh,

To replate the bases, you would have to disassemble all the electrical parts, and get the base down to a simple metal part. I would never put an electrical part in a plating mix.

Here's my horn relay after plating:


The only part plated on this was the cover which is easily detached.. The base was just wire brushed with a Dremel.

You would be surprised how well some of these parts clean up with a wire or nylon brush. A little use of Jasco Metal Etch also helps. I think most of the electical parts in the engine compartment were protected with an early coat of oil and grease from the engine. Unless you see rust showing through, just think about cleaning them up, and put a coat of WD40 or Triflo to protect them for the future. Most bright zinc parts go a white dull after a short period of time, just exposed to air.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Greg L.]

Re: Horn relay Plating

John,

I'm no expert by any means on this but I'm going to be using my Caswell kit soon and for the first time for items like the relays, condensers, etc. What I had thought would work is to coat the areas that you want to protect from plating with paint or varnish of some kind to seal the critical areas away from the plating solution.

I know this sounds easier that it probably is but it's all that I can think of. If you can keep the current away from the areas you don't want plated and then be able to remove this "insulating" coating with paint remover after the part is plated you should have good results.

Maybe Jerry can comment on this as I remember seeing a pic of a fuel pump that he did but for the life of me can't find it in the archives to see how he did it.