Hi everyone
I'm finishing the restoration of my BSA and I wanted to know how the bolts of the factory were. They were clear from the photos I saw, so I rule out they were burnished. They were galvanized with zinc?
Can someone help me?

Thanks

email (option): bongiovanni1988@libero.it

Many were cadmium plated...Some were chemically 'blacked'...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Thanks for your answer. Is there any document or photo?
Also, do you know which criterion was used? (for example: the first bikes were with cadmium-plated bolts and those end of war with blackened bolts?). Are cadmium-coated bolts still found today or can they be coated?
thanks

email (option): bongiovanni1988@libero.it

Cadmium plating is still available in UK but the monitoring of the effluents discharged is so stringent that it's only worthwhile doing by plating firms who have MOD or other lucrative contracts. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Good evening,
sorry for my bad English ...
to my knowledge for ecological reasons ... cadmium deposit is no longer allowed today but I tested the sanding corundum at 6 bar on the chromed parts of a WD / CO and a WM20, it's nice. the zinc coating goes well also on small parts, not on the exhaust because of the temperature but there it is necessary to sand at about 2 bars
regards

Most early bikes, ie. 1939-1941 used matt chrome for their hardware, then came cadmium, and in 1944-45 most was just painted with the rest of the bikes. So it all depends on what year your bike is.

I would never use zinc plating, it turns grey or even black over time, better still to paint heads of bolts etc. with a spraycan of silver used for alloy car wheels, that is quite durable. Or make all hardware in stainless, and bead blast, personally i don't like it as it's too yellow coloured, it can however als be matt chrome plated with very nive results.


Picture of sample of stainless matt chromed Norton cylinder head nuts, after 10 years they still look brand new on the bike!;




My 2p,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbi##.net (think about this!)

Thanks for the precise answer.
My bike is from the end of 1944, so would you have the bolts painted like the bike? However, I like a lot more chrome matting, if it is correct I would do that?
Or what do you think of using stainless steel bolts and nuts? would it be so different from the opaque chrome? it would probably be easier for me ...

Thank you

email (option): bongiovanni1988@libero.it

I often used stainless fasteners and I blast them with medium aluminium oxide grit. I also use a lot of dull chrome fittings and cad plated parts which can come back in different shades of dull silver, and in the grand scheme of building a bike, a mixture of all of them on a bike hardly notices. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

About 15 years back I bought a cadmium plating set from a firm in Florida that specialized in kits to gold plate car badges without removing them. It's a genuine cadmium cyanide bath with 2 large Cd anodes, toxic as hell, but a snap to use. I'd be surprised if it's still available on the open market.

Jeff in Rhode Island

email (option): jjbandoo@aol.com

If you dip stainless fasteners in any one of the stainless steel saucepan cleaners it will etch them quite nicely.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au