One of the things Rich and I learned at Metric Mechanic is that old serviceable fasteners, and other steel bits, can be replated at a reasonable cost. For no logical reason, I really like new looking fasteners. They add an appealing sparkle to your work that says “I’m high end. I wasn’t cobbled together at 2AM in Scott’s garage. No no, I’m some high end shit.”
From dismantling a number of cars over the years I’ve a bezillion fasteners carefully organized in little drawers, but it’s always irked me that they all look like crap. Years ago I tried bead plasting them and I tried a media vibrator, but nothing worked very well. Then I saw how MM’s fasteners came back from plating. They looked terrific.
I’ve finally gotten around to asking MM who it was that did their plating and I’m going to send them a box of fasteners.
The quality of plating varies state to state because there’s lots of environmental restrictions on the process. So the highly effective plating technique an outfit can use in one state, isn’t allowed in an adjacent state. That’s why I wanted to use MM’s outfit. And by using a USPS Priority box you can send lots of fasteners for not much $$.
Once I get this done I’ll tell y’all how it worked out.
