[buk]

I want to order a plating kit to plate my bits and pieces but am wondering what would be better, the zinc or the nickel?

Thoughts or advice? thanks.

Best,
Nick

 

[Tony the torch]

My 2 cents.....zink is cheap and lasts longer than un-maintained nickle will. Nickle looks great in the right places.

 

[gravley]

I have replated the original fasteners on several bikes with Caswell products. It will take a few trials to figure it out, but the results are great and they hold up very well.

 

[kleinbike]

I've used the zinc kit, "Copy Cad" they call it, on the last two bikes I've done. Highest praise! You can control how shiny or dull you want the parts. Best part in my opinion is you can keep track of what every part is so there is no big puzzle to figure out when you get a box of nuts and bolts back from the plater.

 

[supercrouton]

I want to order a plating kit to plate my bits and pieces but am wondering what would be better, the zinc or the nickel?

Thoughts or advice? thanks.

Best,
Nick

Your best bet is to read up on as much as you can find on both. Tony is right about nickle though, it looks great, but is more porous than zinc, and is thus higher maintenance to prevent corrosion of the substrate. Zinc produces a sacrifical layer of oxide over the top and as such is the choice of nearly every OEM manufacturer for durability v. cost. Most OEMs use a final chromate process; gold-ish or blue-ish hue to further protect the base material. Caswell has many chromating color processes to choose from as well.
Cheers, Dan.