The 'E' Type Forum

Hello
I am trying to find the correct finish for the front suspension on a late Series 1 drop floor car 89 series chassis number.
All the books I have read give different finishes and everyone I have spoken to in the restoration business give different finishes too.

Can any one help?

Adrian

3.8 or 4.2? Try looking at the pictures of original cars here: viewtopic.php?t=2006 and here (4.2): viewtopic.php?t=2007

The correct finish is cadmium plating . This is not now easy to have done because of toxicity ( there are only 2 places in the UK who will do it ) and is in any event very expensive . An alternative is zinc/nickel, which does not look as nice but is very durable , or zinc which is easiest but not as long lasting . Alternatively , you can just paint them, and this is probably the most practical and cheapest solution

Another thing to try is a brass wire wheel brush mounted in your electric drill used to polish them. Mine looked pretty scruffy before giving them that treatment but they shined up very nicely (original cadmium plating) and have only had to have an occasional touch up with the wire brush due to light surface rust.

I wonder if Mark's polishing technique combined with Sharkhide protectant wouldn't be the cat's meow.

http://www.sharkhide.com/mpinfo.html

I painted mine, using a local (Norway = Arcanol) high quality metal primer that comes in a variety of standard colours. It can be used as a topcoat when applied in 2 coats.

On other projects I'd worked through tins called aluminium, zink, grey and finally found out that metal-grey is to my eyes a pretty darned close match in both colour and texture. The primer has a high metallic content that gives just the right metallic glitter effect, whilst being satin-matte.

Cheap and cheerful, and it's only me who knows that it ain't 100% original, fools everyone else who looks under the bonnet :D

Thank you everyone for the replies. I will probably go with the cadmium or zinc and gold.

What colour should the top fulcrum bar be and the lower torsion bar?

christopher storey wrote:The correct finish is cadmium plating . This is not now easy to have done because of toxicity ( there are only 2 places in the UK who will do it ) and is in any event very expensive . An alternative is zinc/nickel, which does not look as nice but is very durable , or zinc which is easiest but not as long lasting . Alternatively , you can just paint them, and this is probably the most practical and cheapest solution

Christopher, I would be interested to know who the two companies are that are prepared to undertake Cadmium, I have tried many searches without success? Also interested that you mention it being very expensive - I heard it would cost around ?1200 (charged by weight), if all the items were supplied together and this does run into many hundred's when one considers the suspension, throttle linkages, brackets, nuts, bolts, washers and reasonably on a par with electro zinc plating used on more modern cars (some quote 50p per item). But nothing in my view compares to the longevity and appearance of cadmium.

There is another option if you can find someone who does it,... dull chrome.

This bonnet latch is dull chrome;


Its quite similar to cadmium plating just slightly brighter, less bright than zinc plating which is what I did my suspension arms in as below

Hi Richard....just google search Cadnium plating...and up pops a few places....would you really send of every bit in one go.....these places have a nack of loosing parts

Richard : the ones I found who could still do cadmium were both aviation orientated . One was in South Wales, and the other from memory was in Avon or Somerset . This was about 7 years ago, and the cost for complete front suspension parts ( wishbones, uprights and fastenings ) quoted then was about ?500 IIRC

I have rung round all of the cadmium plating companies in the UK and they have all said they will not do it. Aerospace and MOD only. So that leaves zinc and dull chrome for the wishbones and brackets etc.

I still need to know the finish of the fulcrum bars and the torsion bar....anyone?

Hi

Fulcrum bars on mine were both showing remnants of the CAD plating, torsion bars had no applied finish in evidence....so they were either just a blackened treatment or painted black I would say

Regards
Jonathan

mgcjag wrote:Hi Richard....just google search Cadnium plating...and up pops a few places....would you really send of every bit in one go.....these places have a nack of loosing parts

Steve

You are quite correct in mentioning loosing parts, in my recent experience in using a local company for electro plating (rear suspension brackets and fixings for my BMW) I put all the items together about 300 in number.

In conversation with the plating company, I asked about securing parts and the choice was to have them done loose (less expensive) or by individual wiring. I chose the individual wiring but still lost about 10 items. Which if it's important to retain originality is 10 too many...

On the next occasion I decided to separate the items into type, for example all washers together, nuts, bolts etc. all placed in individual containers and the quantity written on the lid as it helped I believe the operative to better concentrate on the task in hand and this proved to be the case, not one item was missing...

wynnski wrote:
I still need to know the finish of the fulcrum bars and the torsion bar....anyone?

Do you know of the JCNA Judging Guide? It may not cover every item but it is pretty comprehensive (and accurate). I am sure there is a link in the Knowledge Base.
Well worth reading if you haven't already seen it.
Joe

Hello Joe

Thank you for the the lead. I have the judging guide but it conveniently leaves out suspension parts.
I have opted to go with the either the dull chrome or zinc finish for all of the parts that were cadmium plated.

Adrian

wynnski wrote:Hello
I am trying to find the correct finish for the front suspension on a late Series 1 drop floor car 89 series chassis number.
All the books I have read give different finishes and everyone I have spoken to in the restoration business give different finishes too.

Can any one help?

Adrian

I had a conversation about the finish of the suspension quite recently with a company who specialise in restoring the early e types, their experience has shown that it was either Cadmium plating or black paint along the lines that if back in the day plated items were delayed they would fit a non plated i.e. painted black item instead to keep production flowing. Certainly with my e type I could find no trace of Cadmium on the upper wishbone only black paint. Seems like a feasible story to me - I intend to replate with Cadmium.

Hello Richard

Good luck with the cadmium. I think I managed to phone all of the companies that do cadmium in the UK and no one will do it. If you do find someone let me know or post their details.
Adrian

Unfortunately, I don't know who they are, only that the company restoring my E in 12 months have their own arrangement which is I assume a trade secret.

A couple of years ago however I did spend quite a time phoning round and spoke to a company where we agreed that once I was ready, we would meet up and look at the possibility of doing something. I'm away on business travelling at present but will look through my notes on my return and PM you.

Please give me a prompt if you don't hear back in 7 days...

Today I finally stripped the front suspension down and found that the only parts that were painted, and that is with black paint, were the torsion bars, everything else was cadmium plated.