Adding Some Bling

There was a box of miscellaneous items that were removed from the car and they'd look better in a shiny finish. The parts were a mix of reproduction with a black finish such as the hood hinges, and original Ford with 40+ years of crud on them (see first photo of door latch as an example). They were bead blasted and then zinc plated with clear chromate at Surtronics in Raleigh. (Need to bead blast them before dropping them off at Surtronics.)





The finished parts came out great overall. But I'm going to ask them to refinish the gas tank filler neck. It was the only part that wasn't up to par. [Update: I brought the part back and they stripped it down for me and showed me the beadblasting wasn't smooth enough -- so I took the part home and wet sanded it and brought it back for a free refinish...] I think a silver cadmium would have been as good of a finished product, even smoother and longer-lasting (but more expensive). My box of parts getting refinished cost $110.

One batch would have been $55, for instance a big box of nuts and bolts, but I had some large/long pieces. I liked that the rubber and plastic pieces are not affected by the zinc plating, so complex parts don't need to be completely disassembled first...
http://www.surtronics.com/