Now that I have gotten my powder coating coming along well, I was wondering if anyone knew of a good way to restore original nuts, bolts, clips, etc... Much of my hardware is still in good shape but has some light surface rust and/or lots of grunge. I have heard that most hardware was just black oxide coated. Is this the factory correct finish? And if so, what is the best way to redo original pieces? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

You can buy at Classic Industries black oxide spray paint, which is a pretty good replica, I also bake them after painting as it hardens the paint up. I took all my bolts and sandblasted them lightly to get the rust etc off first.

As I found it difficult and time consuming to try and locate new ones this seemed to work pretty well.

I bead blasted mine and had them zinc black chromate plated. It's a very durable finish that is a little shinier than black oxide. You can also have them zinc black oxide plated but I could not find a place locally that would do it.

Eastwood sells a black oxide kit just for this purpose.

- Jake

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. The thought of bead blasting each bolt is not that high up on my list right now. It is tedious enough getting larger parts prepped for powder coating. But......I'm also trying to keep a budget as others do too, so having someone else plate them is not necessarily an option either.

I looked at the Eastwood option and it seems like a reasonable choice if I decide to bead blast things myself. A couple questions then:

1. Is black oxide the traditional factory finish?
2. Has anyone have any idea of the quality of this Eastwood product?

1) Eastwood has an alternative to bead blasting. It's a tumble polishing systems - it works really well.

2) I have tried the black oxide kit. You have to seal the parts in clear sealer afterwards. I have heard that the parts start rusting eventually as the sealer fails. My car has yet to leave the garage, so I don't know about that.

Salmon,

Have you used the Eastwood tumbler? I bought their intermediate tumbler and could never get my fasteners clean enough for refinishing. It did reduce the effort needed for bead blasting, though.

69 LV: I think you will find $80-$100 a bargain after you consider the cost of a tumbler and black oxide kit that will not provide a very protective coating. If you plan it out, you should be able to get all your fasteners done for this.

John

Yes, I have run most of my nuts and bolts through the tumbler. It's a 2 step process - 1st is the green plastic triangles and then walnut shells. I just run it for a long time. Probably 48 - 72 hours for the plastic media and 24 for the walnut shells. I'm pretty happy with the results. The benefits are that you can do stuff in batches; it does the work for you, and it really cuts down on the chances of losing parts. MUCH better than my previous method of the wire wheel on the bench grinder (watch the parts FLY across the room) and the parts are cleaner afterwards.

Thanks for the feedback so far. At this point it looks like I have a couple options. Either way I'm going to have to clean the parts if I want to reuse them. So, I'll decide what makes the most sense for costs/time. The tumbler may be an option as a way to start a "batch" and go work on something else. I just can't see blasting nuts and bolts. Too time consuming. I'm going to try and get caught up on some powder coating while I bag the nuts/bolts until later.

Iwas actually thinking about buying a rock tumbler for $39.99 from Harbor Freight. I'm thinking it should work the same as anything else. Right???

It is quite possible that it would work. I think the key is just having the parts spend enough time with the right media. It may take a little longer but who knows. Eastwood's looks like it vibrates rather than tumbles. Not sure if that is better or not. Maybe you should buy one of the those small ones from K-mart in the kids toy section first. I can't imagine them costing more than 20.00.

Do NOT use the rock tumbler. I've had one. Part of the action of the tumbler is the rocks grinding against each other. The vibrating action cleans the parts WITHOUT them wearing against each other. You will have bolts with rounded heads and no threads.

Thanks for the tip. I guess I will look at the Eastwood kit when a few more ebay dollars come in.