Dash Panel Screws: Body Color?

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Should the body screws holding dash to tub be painted body color or were they zinc plated?

 

Zinc.

 

Zinc, or cadmium?

 

Cad, unless it was a Tuxedo Park where they were all chrome!
-Donny

 

So if some PO had painted the bolts, how do you return them to the plating? Sandblasting will move the plating too.

 

Maybe soak in lacquer thinner. Or paint with something that approximates the plating look. Eastwoods sells some stuff like that.

My plating was sparse on a few so I primed and will paint. I've found aluminum rattle can topped with clear looks like raw tarnished aluminum. Similar to what my screws looked like. The clear top coat knocks the shine and glitter out of the aluminum paint.

 

Paint remover, gloves and a toothbrush.

 

The carb cleaner that comes in a pail with a dunking basket would work too. Avoid anything acidic as it will strip the plating.

 

stainless steel looks best

 

Yep, stainless .

 

I did stainless.

 

When I did a frame-off recondition on my Tux, I replaced all with stainless. Be sure to use anti-seize everywhere.

 

Its a minor thing, but the original screws with the captive washers are nice shape and are unique looking so I'm see how they look after paint.

 

All the originals I've had, which is a lot, have been zinc coated. I cannot comment on the Tux bolts. I've not had any factory dash bolts that were cad plated.

 

I think I agree with zinc. Mine are dull silver. Isnt cad a brassy color?

 

Kind of look zinc-inspired. A bit too bright but good enough for who will be driving it.

 

IIRC there are two common cad plates, bright cad plating and iridescent cad plating. The iridescent plating is yellowish, and has a green or red hue when held right in the light. This may only show up on large-ish plated surfaces. Bright plating is silvery, lighter in hue than zinc. Pretty sure the original is bright cad, as stated above.

 

And for a related experiment here are my original hood hinge screws. Day 1: Berryman's carb cleaner caustic dip. These screws do not seem to be plated but do have the same type of captive washer. I wonder if the only purpose was to streamline high-priced assembly labor? An element of error-proofing?

 

Because these do not seem plated, and because I can, I may blast and parkerize these prior to epoxy prime. About the best pre-paint surface is phosphate.