I am prepareing two SR Winfield carbs to go onto the overhead on my banger motor during the rebuild of my 27 RP following the recent earthquakes here. I would like to take them back to the original or better finish it would appear that most of these where copper plated and the butterfly linkage appeared to be nickle plated. I have already posted on the monthly banger thread. Also has anyone any good expanded pictures of these or sage advise on restoring them? Thanks Rusty
I don't remember where I read it, but I believe they were bronze plated. Let me see if I can find that piece of info.
Thanks for that I wonder how this process was done as bronze is not a parent metal but I have heard of bronzed baby shoes and Jim would be the person to know guess I should try and message him. This would also explain the black appearance they take on with age I thought they may have been electro plated with copper by as they are pot metal I was not sure I will check further now before doing anything dont want to destroy a good matched set of rare carbs thanks Rusty
Yes, bronze plated by a company very near Winfield's shop. I don't know the process but putting bronze on leather couldn't be too invasive??? I think Ed said the plating was done to protect the pot metal from alky and such. It was just a flash of bronze.
Nice to learn about the bronze plating. All the Winfields I've had over the years had what I thought was cad plated linkage. There is an early and late style, the later style looks like it was cheaper to make. Once someone finds a bronze plater that can do Winfields please post the info here. Bob
You can bronze plate anything. My father used to bronze baby shoes. We bronzed a butterfly once. If it is metal you can bronze plate it just like copper plating or any other kind of electroplating. For non metallic objects we would spray them with lacquer then dust them with powdered bronze. This would provide a metal surface for the plating to stick to. That is how we electroplated the baby shoes.
Thanks Rusty! I didn't know how the powdered bronze stuck to non metalic things. There was a plating shop on Long Island back in the 1980's that would bronze baby shoes and fruit. They did nice automotive plating too. Bob
Thanks guys this is heading down the right path I got hold of an old carb made of similar stuff and copper plated it it just did not look right . talking to an electroplater he said copper and zinc dont go together in damp conditions so I may try to find a way to bronze plate and do another trial.
Have done some research and have found out the following There are a number of ways to bronze plate some use some very nasty chemicals. a number of companies provide kits and chemicals one being Zinex Corp who provide Zinex Bronzac Most engraving companies can get it done they coat medals ect this is what I will probably look at. It would appear that some bronzeing processes give protection to pot metal and assist in giving better wearing surfaces this is probably why Ed Winfield used the process.
RussTee, How would threaded holes in a Winfield do in the bronze plating process, is there a lot of masking to do, or just hang in in the solution? Bob
Not sure how they would go looking at old carbs they seem to just plate them and as the plating is very thin it does not effect them it may be that the plating was more for giving a hard surface for the shafts than for protecting the surface but it is something that makes these carbs unique.
I've seen some of the bronze plating on Winfields over they years, sort of a mottled finish. Would a freshly plated Winfied have a uniform finish? Wonder why the finish didn't last on most of them. Bob
We had an outfit from Warner Electric in Chicago. We did the plating in the basement. Don't remember the chemicals in the plating bath except copper sulphate. I think they supplied the chemicals premixed, just add water. They can't have been too nasty. You can still buy small plating outfits from Caswell Plating and others, they should know how to do it safely.
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