Green fo' the money...

[Def]

Gold fo' the hunnies....

It's the name of today's Chemistry lesson.

Start off with a bunch of hours of work prepping up some old Z32 rear uprights to make them look all nice and new like so:




Then get you some battery acid, Alodine 1201 and safety gear.... and end up with this:




Another shot:




Close up:






The sun washes out the color a bit,and it's got quite a bit of green iridescent stuff going on, but it does look pretty baller in real life.


For those of you that are still with me and asking WTF is going on, and why the uprights look like that. Alodine is a commercial name(also known as Iridite) for a chromium conversion process. It's basically a fancy way of saying it's a way to bond chromium to aluminum to prevent corrosion. It also helps paint adhere to aluminum since it won't oxidize beneath the paint(which is why paint flakes off on aluminum). It's used in all sorts of aerospace applications, but they're trying to go away from it due to the chromium content - hence the safety precautions if you use this.

[2Fass240us]

Looks like balls.

Love,
Andy

[turtl631]

Um, maybe we need to see video?


I need to see this stuff in person. But hey, if it prevents oxidation, cool. That's all I really care about anyways.

[Def]

It's a chromate conversion coating - it's not supposed to look like glitter pink paint.

The iridescent thing is there, but it's not hugely noticeable like a chameleon paint job or something like that.


I guess I'm a little more interested in the baller/cool factor from a technical point of view. Plus they wouldn't stay all nice and shiny if I left 'em that way anyway, so I'm happy with it.

[Def]

Did the top of my Koyo radiator too because it'd always oxidize when spilling coolant on it. Thing cleans right up now. Tried to do the top of my eBay catchcan and for some reason it didn't do anything even though the surface seemed like it etched... I'm thinking there's some crazy Chinese clearcoat on that thing or something...

[jmauld]

So, is this stuff working well.

If I paint my Z32 uprights, the paint is just going to eventually flake off?

Why did you not try anodizing them?

[a_ahmed]

Speaking of def and z32 upright spherical bearings :P What's going on with that project? heh

[Def]

So, is this stuff working well.

If I paint my Z32 uprights, the paint is just going to eventually flake off?

Why did you not try anodizing them?

The paint could stick, but you'd really need to alodine them first to get it to last for a long period of time.

I haven't installed them yet(no rear Z32 compatible shocks), but they won't ever corrode that's for sure.

Anodizing that large of a surface would take A LOT of current. Plus anodizing cast pieces typically doesn't work that well due to the changes in the composition of the metal.

I'll take a pic of my uprights sometime soon, maybe you guys will like the look in not retardo bright sun.



As for the bearings - about to ship out a few, got to see how much stuff I have and get a few more bearings as I've mostly gone through my first supply. They're coming relatively soon, promise.