Restoration finish of suspension wishbones

[Apprentice1975]

I have dismantled the top and bottom wishbones (see pic) and thinking about restoration finish of these items along with the axle carrier.

It seems that some restorers are having them electro-plated.
However when looking at mine I can see that they were originally black, presumably painted.
Did the S3 come off the production-line with plated or painted wishbones/suspension?
I'm thinking cost to..
thanks to all,
happy days..

[vee12eman]

Well, I was told they were plated on all E-types, including the Series 3. I took mine to be plated and he refused, saying that they would not take plating well. I argued, but to no avail. Looking by, I could have gone elsewhere, but instead, I de rusted thoroughly, using a dip, then primed and painted with silver wheel paint. Here’s one of them photographed just now, about 12 or 13 years after I painted them. You can see pitting which was there before the paint application, but as you see, a cheap and effective solution.



Regards,

Simon.

[Apprentice1975]

Thanks Simon, they look good for 14 years.
that gives me some idea of what's possible .

[abowie]

We mostly zinc plate them. Originally they would have been cadmium, which is a bit more resilient.

Silver powder coat is also a good option, especially if you get them to do a clear coat over the top.

[AussieEtype]

With just 10 years of use on salty UK roads all the plating on my wishbones had disappeared. I did as Simon did and just cleaned and spray painted with silver frost - looks very similar to the plated item and lasts a lot better.

Garry

[Apprentice1975]

Maybe........ the early series cars prior to Leyland take over had the plated wishbones . Once Leyland took over they resorted painted for cost reduction..?
just a thought.
thank you for your input.

[Bob.]

It is known that some early S1 cars left the factory with black front suspension components but otherwise I believe bright cadmium plating was used until the end of production. The last S3 was retained by Jaguar and pictures, taken at Robey's during restoration for the E-Type's 40th anniversary, certainly show a silver rather than black finish prior to being replated.

Richard T Russ in his book "Jaguar V-12 E-Type A Guide to Authenticity" published in 1991 comments on the cad plating coming off the suspension lower support of an unrestored car, so maybe your parts were finished in black following a failure of the original BL plating.

[Apprentice1975]

thank you all for the info and feed back.
Some choices to make.
Bob, I will try and find that book .

[Sdinse]

Check into electro-less (sp?) Nickel plating. It was used by Classic Jag when they did mine. Looks great and is durable.

[baganz.sven@web.de]

thank you all for the info and feed back.
Some choices to make.
Bob, I will try and find that book .

The Book is sold for more than 500€ here in Germany. I have got one together with my car from the previous owner.
Yu can send me a personal message if you want me to scan the relevant pages.

Best regards
Sven

[baganz.sven@web.de]

By the way, on my early S3 they dont seem to be silver.

Best regards

Sven

[myJagV12]

That's the way mine looked before I thoroughly cleaned them and painted them with 2K primer and 2K frosted finisher. I told myself that plating still could be done later but I am very happy with the painting.

Best Regards, Tom

edit: Regarding powder coating I heard that at least here in Austria the authorities don't like powder coated chassis parts as rust can be hidden under a good looking surface.

[Apprentice1975]

Hi Tom, they look great, you've done a good job of the painting.
I've decided to have a go at zinc electro-plating......
Wishbones
Bushing brakets
Hub carriers
spacer tubes.
When I get a result I will share the experience with the forum, good or bad :) :(
Colin

[myJagV12]

Hi Colin,
Thx :D Yes I'm quite happy with the result and I have treated the torsion bars the same way and used polybush so i guess this will last longer than myself ;-)

Best Regards from Austria to Australia
Tom

I did not want to plate them as mine were almost not rusty and I wanted to keep the obviously good original cadmium plating, though I was originally thinking of nickel plating them.

[myJagV12]

Hi Colin,
Btw this is how Nickle plating looks like on my exhaust manifolds. Disregarding the price I think this might be the better choice to Zinc plating.
BR, Tom

Edit: As the surface of the manifolds was not very smooth they electro galvanically plated copper first and nickel on top after another company tried to directly nickel plate the iron and failed where it was not smooth.

[angelw]

Tom Wrote:

Edit: As the surface of the manifolds was not very smooth they electro galvanically plated copper first and nickel on top after another company tried to directly nickel plate the iron and failed where it was not smooth.

Hello Tom,
Are you referring to Electroless, or Electro nickel plating?

Regards,

Bill

[myJagV12]

Hi Bill !
They were doing electro plating on the exhaust manifolds.
I think this would also be fine for the suspension parts ?
It was (finally) done in a small local shop.
BR, Tom

[angelw]

Tome Wrote:

They were doing electro plating on the exhaust manifolds.
I think this would also be fine for the suspension parts ?
It was (finally) done in a small local shop.

Hello Tom,
I suspected so. It's typically cost saving to not copper plate before electro nickel plating. Electroless Nickel plating is a very good process for such an application.

Regards,

Bill

[myJagV12]

Hi Bill,

Well he told me when the surface is too spotted (which was the case for my old exhausts) it is necessary to plate copper before to "fill the gaps". The company that tried before wanted to directly electro nickel plate but the nickel only showed at the smooth parts. I am not an expert in plating but the copper-nickel treatment was not terribly expensive (~400 USD for all 4 exhausts) and I needed a high temperature coating.
For the suspension parts zinc might be sufficient but I personally did not want to replace a "not so bad" cadmium plating with zinc (or nickel) and decided to paint.

BR, Tom

[Apprentice1975]

Hi
I finally got to zinc plate the near side front suspension parts.
On to the offside parts soon.
Can post recipe if anyone's interested.
Hope it lasts.. if it doesn't then will paint .
Colin