Refinishing the Fuel Tank Flame arrester

[Kevin in NJ]

I believe the screen was terne plated. That is coated in lead. I have one that is decent and after a treatment in rust away the surface rust is gone in the 30% or so of light surface rust that was there.

How have you refinished them? What have you done and how well did it work?
I have to state I am not interested in show level, but future rust prevention.

I was thinking of a few ideas. My concern is not having the holes plug up.

A small tank of lead and dipping and letting it sit long enough to come up to temp. Then quickly taking out of the lead then wacking a plate to get the excess lead off and open the holes. There may have to be some flux involved at some point.

I also have tinning butter. Rub it on and bring it up to temp and then wack it on a plate to clear holes.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I've sandblasted a couple of them, then I use my Caswell Copy Cad home plating kit to plate them with tin. They have held up very well. In fact last night I sandblasted the horn mount for my Studebaker and plated it the same way. I'll take a picture of it and post it.

[Pickupman]

I believe the screen was terne plated. That is coated in lead. I have one that is decent and after a treatment in rust away the surface rust is gone in the 30% or so of light surface rust that was there.

How have you refinished them? What have you done and how well did it work?
I have to state I am not interested in show level, but future rust prevention.

I was thinking of a few ideas. My concern is not having the holes plug up.

A small tank of lead and dipping and letting it sit long enough to come up to temp. Then quickly taking out of the lead then wacking a plate to get the excess lead off and open the holes. There may have to be some flux involved at some point.

I also have tinning butter. Rub it on and bring it up to temp and then wack it on a plate to clear holes.

They were not terne plated. The beginning of production through early 28 screens were brass. After that the screens were cadmium or zinc plated. Both is acceptable in Fine Point Judging.

[Kevin in NJ]

Ahh well that would make things different. I was going on the solder found at the top. Copy Cad it is.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I said the Copy Cad was tin, but I meant to say zinc, and I corrected my other post. Here is the horn bracket I blasted and plated last night. I have never seen any plating on these horn brackets, but I want some rust protection, and it still looks pretty natural. I also pictured some light switch parts I plated, as well as a cutout. The contacts in the light switch aren't connected to the case, so they don't take a plating, which is good. On the base of the cutout you can see the line where I dip it in the solution. The plating comes out a dull grey, so I give it a very light brushing with the worn out brass brush shown, which makes the plating brighter.

[Kevin in NJ]

FWIW, I put a repro starter switch housing I did on my porch for a month or two. The side I coated with satin clear was fine, but the unprotected side has a rust haze.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I put a light coat of oil on the horn bracket as soon as I got done wire brushing it.
I usually wipe down my cutout with an oily rag about once or twice a year, and after 15 years, it still looks good.

[Steve Plucker]

Here is an interesting read on the plating of this part: http://www.plucks329s.org/pdf/gastank/filler_assy.pdf

Pluck

[Kevin in NJ]

Thanks all for the information. I should have checked my JS.
What got me thinking tern plate was the lead used to solder the top part to the screen. I used my knife to scrap a small amount from that area.

I have the copy cad system so I will be doing some zinc plating soon.

Thanks!!!!!