Cadmium Plating alternative?

[Heuer]

I have been recommended to look at this company who do ceramic coatings on silencers: www.camcoat.com I was initially interested in a ceramic coating for the manifolds but on further reading I see they can provide a ceramic coat alternative to cadmium. They show a Vincent Black Shadow where they have used ceramic coatings instead of cadmium plating for footrest hangers, oil pipes, inlet manifolds, lower engine plates and nuts. It is very durable and most certainly better than zinc plating. Thoughts?


It will also be ideal if you have mild steel resonators made because they can use a product called Polished Cerma Krome to mimic the chrome/stainless steel look.


Manifolds in black are ?120/pair. Resonators ?115/pair.

[chrisvine]

David,

I've been looking at the alternatives to Cadmium plating as I'm just about to have my front suspension Zinc-Nickel plated for my restoration. A friend who runs the EIC plating firm has agreed to do it. They also do Cadmium plating but unfortunately they're not interested in private individuals for Cadmium. It now seems to be limited to aero applications. I suspect this might open up a can of worms but I'd really be interested in what made others decide on their choice of finish - Zinc, Nickel or painting.
My Elise suspension was Nickel plated and I vowed I'd never to do it again. As it's not sacrificial like Cadmium or Zinc, when it was inevitably damaged it started to rust from beneath and looked quite poor very quickly. It's also a pain to remove. I find the Zinc plating is far too bright and not that durable so I've been looking at toning it down by adding an additional clear matt/satin 2k lacquer finish. The aim is mainly for durability rather than for show.

Chris

[Heuer]

Chris

Worth investigating Camcoat then. I have it on my recently acquired FHC manifolds and pipes but I have no long term experience. Having heard the tales of woe when people have used passivated zinc I think this is worth pursuing as an alternative to cadmium..

[Heuer]