Restoring yellow passivated zinc parts by DIY electroplating

You can restore the looks and corrosion protection of your bare metal parts by setting up a home zinc plating unit and in this video we show you how.
Many of the unpainted metal parts on the car were originally finished in a yellow passivated zinc electroplate. You can restore this to its former glory yourself with a low cost, DIY setup. Like most skills, it's easy once you know how and in this video we give you the knowhow.
Once you've got the hang of it on small parts like these, you can scale it up for the big stuff. Go on, empty your swimming pool and zinc plate your chassis in it.

[@TheJcman72]

Great detailed explanation, not just another kit presentation that can't be found anywhere.

[@rootsxrocks]

Awesome you are including your child, I just yesterday called on skills I was taught at that age flaring and cutting pipe and hooking up propane heaters. My grandfather used me a cheap labor and gave me so many valuable life skills that one must use KZbin to learn nowadays.

[@billmckee3230]

This is a really good instructional video. It has excellent audio without hiss or hum or trucks in the background. Lighting is very even too. You speak clearly, not too fast, no mumbling. You look directly at the camera and not everywhere else, and no blinking, yawning and umming/ahhing. Humour to drive home the points. In short, this could be used as a model for how to make the ideal instructional video. Really great job. OK - enough grovelling. Question - a number of zinc plating videos use Zinc Sulphate instead of Zinc Chloride. You got any opinion on that? Can you just use them interchangeably?

[@thelotuselanm100restoratio3]

Very kind, thank you. Any solution of zinc cations and negative anions will work to some extent but some work better than others. Commercial platers use cyanide for the anion but that's no good for DIY work for obvious reasons. Acid zinc is most suitable for home use and zinc chloride is popular because the proprietary brighteners (Hyperbrite and so on) you can use with it give nice, shiny results. I haven't used sulphate myself but I understand it works albeit with a dull finish.

[@RealisticSurvivor]

Besides the unbelievable instructional content of this video the last 30 sec was the best guys. :) Thanks for making and sharing.

[@PurpleHelmet]

This is the most comprehensive video I've seen on the topic, absolutely fantastic - thankyou for taking the time to make this. The brighteners seem the closely guarded secret, the secret sauce. I'll bet they are fundentally simple too - any ideas? Covalent compounds that modify the crystal growth on the metal - but what! I see folks throwing sugar in baths, but still dull coatings - have heard people use molasses, bit b3 and so on... hard to tell what is wives tales and what might actually give a good result! PS I know you can just buy brighteners but that's not the point! I need to know lol

[@stewartw.9151]

Excellent presentation, thanks! Just what i am looking for.

[@crdenardin]

my 29 best spent minutes on youtube

[@paulrobertson3685]

awesome................the best one yet on this subject

[@bikefarmtaiwan1800]

Excellent video- luckily I can already get fairly good results but I love to see others do a great job too! Hope your Lotus is nearing completion :)

[@kamalabebo]

Hi, very helpful video, thanks...

[@StevePhillips]

Thank you for the tips; what delightful helper you have. Only thing is don't have lotus but how about Humber Super Snipe series 5 (1965) pretty good duet.

[@edwardslevin6013]

The reason you had difficulty adjusting the current is because the battery charger is not giving off stable DC, it pulses at 100 hz. This means ohms law does not apply in the same way. you have say 10 times the current for say 10% ot the time. Your current meter does not read RMS current because its a cheap one so you can't rely on it and 10 ohms would only be necessary were you would use 100 ohms with D C. this means you current control is all in the last few percent of the resistor value so its very coarse and would probably overheat. That's why you cannot adjust it properly You could either put a large electrolytic capacitor across the charger to make it more like DC. or change the resistor value much smaller so you have control back

[@ohja6638]

nice work. I would like some more information where you can buy the ingredients and what they are, thanks

[@100nortonfan7]

Nice video.....will an English language version be released in the near future?

[@marchh6501]

Fully agree with Bill , one of the best instuctional video s i have seen , clear , practical , and good humor !I am going to try this ! you are Gold :-) , i do have a question tho : would glass bead blasting be a good step 1 in this proces?Thanx

[@thelotuselanm100restoratio3]

Yes, absolutely. For heavily corroded parts grit or bead blasting is ideal. Just wash the dust off after, give it a light etch in the acid and it's ready to go straight in the bath.

[@neilhughes5609]

hi great vid. i can only find sodium silicate in liquid form at 40% strength how much would i add to a ltr of alkaline bath please cheers Neil

[@adamkeithfreitas6812]

Can Sodium Cabonate (Super Washing Soda) be used instead of Potassium Bicarbonate?

[@Solus]

can the yellow chromate passivate be resused many times?

[@piecetoyou8285]

Great stuff thank you. Do you consider Hydrogen enbrittleness some recommend placing parts in an oven after the chromate, to try and remove the Hydrogen, Do you have much thought on this its new to me, but they say when parts are in some of the chemicals heating up Hydrogen is being entered witch causes the brittleness

[@rossokeefe9268]

What would happen if the copper wire was emerged into the tank...trying to troubleshoot some issues why I can't get a good plating transfer

[@romeoj387]

When I using 12v on copper electroplating, while oxidation process why the water goes dirty yellow instead of clear blue ?

[@darylfisher6932]

This is the best plating video out there! Out here in far north Australia I cannot get propriety brighteners ...I actually had to order the Zinc Choride from the UK. Can I use sugar as a brighter? If so, any recommended ratio?? Thanks again for the superb video!

[@thelotuselanm100restoratio3]

Cheers Cobber. I don't know. The proprietary brighteners are organic based (like sugar) but they don't tell you in detail what's in them. If you try it let us know how it goes. Sugar would be a lot cheaper.

[@Youplatecouk]

Daryl saccharin is used within nickel plating, sadly not in zinc plating.

[@jonathancoppola8071]

Hi, very interesting work. Can you please tell me what brightener name is? regards Jon.

[@thelotuselanm100restoratio3]

I use Hyperbrite. The brightener is usually the thing that gets consumed first. What I like about Hyperbrite is that after the initial make-up, there's a maintenance solution you can dose the bath with a few ml at a time to keep the brightener topped up. But others work just as well.

[@theonlybuzz1969]

Remember that when you are old and grey, your children choose the one you’re going in!

[@awiegengmeggi6352]

How i want buy asid zink plating

[@ardydi966]

Hi very intersting video, but for a French person, it's very difficult to understand... Thank you very much for this video Charles Michel

[@thelotuselanm100restoratio3]

Je suis desole! Tout en Francais a la prochaine fois.

[@ardydi966]

:-)

[@edgarasvas]

Is Your Sodium dichromate Na2Cr2O7 or dihydrate Na2Cr2O7·2H2O ?

[@thelotuselanm100restoratio3]

Either will work. Sodium dichromate is a controlled substance (in the UK at least) so you either need to fill out some paperwork with a chemical supplier or just buy the passivate already made up from a plating supplier. For small scale work the latter is easier.

[@shawnmalicek1189]

Do you need the zinc chloride in the bath. I can't find we're to buy it at thanks.

[@mmg9675]

try an agri store

[@ColonelSimmo]

@@mmg9675 What is an AGRI store?

[@zobbyzockbrecht2469]

After the zinc process i have new tiny little rust areas. Do you have an idea why does this happens ? What mistake could i have made ?

[@themoonformending]

Increased brightener additions to the plating bath could increase the grain refinement of the zinc coating over the possible micro-porosity inherent to steel substrates.

[@smportis]

Does your wife know you used her coming pots? I'd use a dedicated pot for the chemicals. Don't try to slip it back into the cabinet!

[@qivarebil2149]

Way too much talking. And Your plating tank is too small to get good, persistant results. Cleaning was bad. Passivating should be followed by a rinse in clean deionized water. Lots of mistakes here!

[@erlingweiseth2774]

7:40 into the video, You lost my attention.... Too long intro! Boring!