Overhaulin' Decor Kickstand

Woody212

Woody212

Member
#1
#1
After procrastinating what to do with the Decor 12501 on a Super 2 speed that I'm rebuilding, I decided to try and resurrect the mess of a kickstand. I disassembled, cleaned, straightened, removed what was left of the old zinc plating, and did a home zinc replate. Another vintage part saved from abandon!

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Tom S.

Tom S.

#3
#3
The home made plating looks great. I'm intrigued. I'm restoring an old Yamaha motorcycle (well, I guess 1986 is old these days), and some of the plated fittings are really tarnished like your kickstand. They're not chrome, but I'm not sure if it's zinc or cad or just what. The parts are no longer sold by Yamaha and are otherwise still quite useable. The ones that I see on ebay look just as bad. Got any tips for this process? Are you doing a chemical strip before plating? I had the mufflers off another old motorcycle re-chromed, and the plater started by dipping them in acid.
 
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Woody212

Woody212

Member
#4
#4
Thanks Tom. By 1986 most of the parts on your Yamaha would be zinc plate, so this process would work great for that. There are different ways of home zinc plating. The safest and easiest is to use a weak acid electrolyte solution and low voltage. You will find a ton of info and opinions about electrolyte "recipes" online as well as how much voltage/amperage to use. Eastwood sells a kit for around $70 (overpriced imo) or you can buy the ingredients of your own, most available at the grocery store and Lowes/Home Depot. Prep and keeping the part clean is paramount. I use a 50/50 mix of water and Muriatic Acid and submerge the parts for a few hours to overnight depending on the how bad they are to start. This strips most minor rust and old zinc from the part. You can also bead blast the parts. Zinc will not adhere or will peel if the part is not clean when you start the zinc plating. I recommend washing them in hot soapy water first, rinse, then a final rise in a fast evaporating solvent like brake cleaner or lacquer thinner. Use rubber gloves at this point because even fingerprints can cause issues.
 
Woody212

Woody212

Member
#5
#5
Here is a shopping list of what you will need and a picture of what I have.

-a small buckets 1-2gal size
-pure zinc rod or plate(lowes or amazon)
-white vinegar
-caro syrup or sugar
-powder zinc sulfate(gardening supply store or amazon)
-epsom salt
-water
-a low volt source, preferably variable between .5-5v and 60-300ma(I use a trickle charger with a rheostat)
-a volt meter to monitor

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H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#6
#6
Woody212 said:
Here is a shopping list of what you will need and a picture of what I have.
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Woody, I did the exact same thing you did, except I used granulated sugar instead of syrup. I used acetone on my final cleaning. I have been using muratic acid and water for my bike projects for years as well. I was not able to get the fine finish you did. I lightly sanded between sessions with wet 600, over and over. Sure, it was "zinc'd" but it was definitely chalky. I used the zinc roofing roll.

You did a great job! Pat did the same thing and had good results, as did Pete. I think Pete used Eastwood's kit, which has some coloring additive, but I give up. LOL! Wish you'd have been there hold my hand while I attempted this. Might have come out much better. :thumbsup:

Anyway, [MENTION=9532]Tom S[/MENTION] I have a variable volt DC power supply and a bunch of zinc I'll sell you CHEAP.
 
Woody212

Woody212

Member
#7
#7
Woody, I did the exact same thing you did, except I used granulated sugar instead of syrup. I used acetone on my final cleaning. I have been using muratic acid and water for my bike projects for years as well. I was not able to get the fine finish you did. I lightly sanded between sessions with wet 600, over and over. Sure, it was "zinc'd" but it was definitely chalky. I used the zinc roofing roll.
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I've never used the granulated sugar, but have heard that if it's not dissolved properly it can cause problems. The corn syrup is already in liquid form so dissolves properly w/out much work. I had some issues similar to yours when I plated with voltage too high. Depending on the part, I usually don't go over 5v and 130ma. I plate for 10 min, then rub it down with 0000 steel wool then plate a couple of more times.

If Tom isn't interested in your variable power supply, I might be. PM me some pics and a price.
 
H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#8
#8
Woody212 said:
If Tom isn't interested in your variable power supply, I might be. PM me some pics and a price.
Click to expand...
It's this one. I did use it lowest voltage setting, and my sugar was definitely dissolved. Also pre-zinc'd the electrolyte for 24 hours prior to plating. I might have been expecting too much actually, and should have used Eastwood's additive.

Here's the same supply I have on ebay. MW122A Multi-Voltage Output: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.5, 9, 12VDC Regulated DC Power Supply | eBay
 
cyclejunkie

cyclejunkie

New Member
#11
#11
THANK YOU guys for this thread. I have been around cars, motorcycles, equipment for years and had no idea about do it your self zinc. Not sure if I will use it but you have opened a whole new panorama.
 
maverick1

maverick1

Active Member
#14
#14
I use an old cell phone charger for the power supply and it works fine. I plate my parts using the link Tom posted above. I got some old zincs from a boating friend of mine. I bought an inexpensive Tupperware like container and a aquarium pump from Wallyworld and went to town. Works well and is fun to do. There in allot of good info in the Yamaha enduro web site about other subjects if you are into old enduro's. There are some good post on over the counter paint to match some of the old Yamaha colors. Like here, some really good guys willing to help.

Rodney
 
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neo71665

neo71665

Member
#17
#17
capguncowboy said:
you might have better luck if you look for a Cecor brand kickstand :laugh: you've gotta love auto-correct sometimes
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After all the work getting the chemicals, prepping, and plating a part they might sit it on a shelf and it be garage decor.

Years ago a buddy showed up with a zinc kit from caswell. There is a list floating around somewhere but depending on the base metal sometimes you want to copper plate it first. It helps the finished appearance and sometimes the zinc doesn't want to adhere. He had a honda rebel and I think we plated everything he could fit in the container he had.
 
Woody212

Woody212

Member
#18
#18
capguncowboy said:
you might have better luck if you look for a Cecor brand kickstand :laugh: you've gotta love auto-correct sometimes
Click to expand...
Yeah or just a newbie who didn't know better and looked at his poorly stamped kickstand and thought it said Decor. Once I realized it, it was too late to edit. :doah:
 
Woody212

Woody212

Member
#19
#19
Thought I'd share a couple of things that work well for me. I'm a cheap ass, and didn't want to buy the variable power source. I started with the cell charger and it worked great for the small bolts and nuts. Problem was the larger parts did not plate well with it. I needed something with more amperage for parts like sprockets. I built a rheostat from parts I had in the garage. It's a dimmer that's wired to control the outlet in the junction box pictured. I then plug my trickle charger into that so it bacically controls the input current to the charger, thereby changing the output. I hook up an amp meter to the part Im plating and adjust to obtain 85-140 milliamperes depending on the part.

Also zinc swamp cooler anodes work great because they already have a wire attached! I put them 180 apart in the plating bucket.
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