69 Camaro Z/28 RS Parking Lamp Plating

[jmcbeth]

At Nationals this year, I lost points because the parking lamp plating was "poor." Can someone tell me what the correct plating is? Where does one find such information?

Thanks!

[1968RSZ28]

John -

Read this CRG thread...  http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=94.0

Paul

[jmcbeth]

Perfect!

Thanks Paul.

[Jerry@CHP]

John,

They are yellow zinc and we can do them for you once we get the car in to install the upper riveted ball joints.

Jerry

[169INDY]

 
DIY
You Can Do IT!!!!!!
if you have access to a plate shop.

To determine the color of plating scrape some of the interior surface white paint. Mine were yellow (Di-Chro-Cad)

Carefully open up the fold-crimped socket from the housing- Use Screwdrivers, small needle nose pliers & take your time to unfold the crimp and work the bronze socket loose from the light stamp steel shell.
Seperate and feed wire thru the hole.

I glass beaded the remaining white paint on the interior and solvent cleaned the back side this was done so as to not change the texture of the back side of the stamped steel housing. Blasting changes the surface prfile and this affects the sheen of the plating.

[169INDY]

I worked with a friend on gathering a 'Batch' of Camaro parts requiring plating and we found a Seattle area plater that welcomed Hobby plating and we pooled our parts and sent them out for plating.
Appx COST is Very inexpensive-affordable! Shop around, you might get luck locally

85$ min-per rack and you prep the parts and a RACK was HUGE, they plate AIRPLANE parts around here (Think the BIG "B" flying ALUM TUBE Co.) so you can imagine the Rack was appx 4' x 8'  and it was up to you whether you had 2 pcs or 100's what ever would fit on the RACK. Very good turn around and great quality. This one did , Zinc, Cad, Gavl, Nickel, Anodz,,etc...

[169INDY]

After plating:
Mask off the back side and prime and paint the interior with a nice high quality gloss white paint.
I would not reccomend powder coating as I am not sure how the powder baking temp would affect the plating?

[169INDY]

You should then be able to reseat the soft metal socket into the hole.
This may take some grooming of the unfolded flange with a file and pliers to allow the flange to fit back into the hole.
Keep in mind to much folding unfolding actions can work harden the metal and rip apart at the fold so work slow and careful.

Fully seat the socket into the hole and setup in a partially opened vice to act as a backing for reseating the socket flange via a hammer and punch. I found that the ball side of a ball-peen hammer was prefect to get the raised flange to begin its roll over.
As a side note I noticed a tar like substance (SEALER) when disassembly was started, so I used Soft prematex sealant between the mating surfaces of the stamped steel housing and socket and wiped away any excess.

[169INDY]

Next

[169INDY]

Next1

[169INDY]

Misc:
1) The socket can be cleaned and buffed up by many means to provide a clean new appearance.
2) The wiring harness can be cleaned up with Laq thinner and conditioned to look fresh, Wires, grommet and black covering.
3) The wiring terminals were unseated from the connector harness-plastic connector and copper contacts cleaned up to assure good continuity (If required cut and install new copper-brass terminals) and reinstall in plastic connector and given a fresh squirt of die-electric grease.

The repop gaskets I obtained from a vendor were VERY different from the as built gaskets. In fact this presented a problem as the repops were MUCH thinner that the OEM parts and the Lens would rattle when the Factory three retention screw were tightened and the NEW gasket was not thick enough to provide proper compression. I peeled the vendor label and as luck would have it the repop manufacture label was intact and I contacted them and otained thicker gaskets dispite their protests and denial of the defective product. * they originally supplied 0.125" thick gaskets which are not thick as the OEM version.

[169INDY]

Completed Parkers
Very Cool factory Refurbished parts that look beter than the OER reporductions out there, IMO.

This was a very fun project. I took this on when I contacted Jerry a year ago and he mentioned they STOPPER plating parkers?

Now I understand that there were varying suppliers for parts and I want to be clear, when I removed the OEM white paint on the interior of MY orig parkers the plating was found to be Bright Yellow Di-Chromated Cad plating [ 1969 04C LOS pace Car ]
Keep in mind plating wears with age and the yellow dichro treatment fades with time,,,what looks silver can be faded yellow.

Have fun.

Thanks

Jim Weaver

[jmcbeth]

Jim,

My housings look just like your "before" pics.

The finished product is the best I've seen. Do you think spraying the finished product with Eastwood clear coat will prevent fading?
BTW, I couldn't read the stamp on the plate. Mine says "Made in USA". Is that what yours says?

Thanks again,

John

[169INDY]

Jim,

My housings look just like your "before" pics.

The finished product is the best I've seen. Do you think spraying the finished product with Eastwood clear coat will prevent fading?
BTW, I couldn't read the stamp on the plate. Mine says "Made in USA". Is that what yours says?

Thanks again,

John

Yes Mine also have MADE IN USA stamping on back.
If your Coloring is similar to my before I would assume they were yello cad, Checking the finish under the white paint will provide you with conclusive plating finish as built.

We had a lot of Fun with this project. I do not protect the plating as it can alter the sheen, I did it once I figure the way I pamper my Cars someone else will have to refinish it years from now.

I noticed that the title reads RS, while these lights are the same R/S equipped or not.