how to clean the engine and cadmium plated parts?

I've tried the electro plating from Caswell, and not been to happy with it. It's mostly nickle which tarnishes, but it's easy to polish, but if you don't get it completely rust free and clean it will rust on you again. I did get a Caswell electroless plating kit http://www.caswellplating.com/electropl ... -pint.html , but haven't tried it yet. It's just heating solution and soaking the items to plate, but it's still not cheap and like before, completely clean and rust free for a good job. It's a lot of prep too. Lots easier to send it out or buy stainless.

As far as I know, in the late sixties there was no zinc plating, but just cadmium plating (which is now forbidden in a number of countries for environmental reasons and is allowed only for military use)

late sixties triumphs had all the fittings cad plated

Onder said:

Reply to Madass. NO I have not documentary proof on the cad on original factory fasteners. They do look that way
though and zinc surely does not. In fact Id like to know if the spokes were originally zinc or cad.
To Acotrel, agree about the look of SS. In time Ive come to look for originality but honestly it is just a fashion.
Unpolished SS fasteners look close enough to weathered cad and certainly remain rust free. The only
original bikes are original bikes. Why we all cannot control our urge to blast and powder is sort of funny.

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Being lazy and cheap, I use flat silver spray paint. Just squirt a bit into the spray paint cap and use a small water color brush to touch up your cad/zinc nuts. Only lasts a year or so . . . . . then I do it again.

What is the reason for some cadmium plating being silver in color and other cadmium plating being gold in color?

Both cad and zinc plating can be chromate passivated and look gold in colour. The way to tell zinc is to put the part into dilute hydrochloric acid. If it bubbles, it is zinc. Cadmium is more corrosion resistant, however there is a greater risk of hydrogen embrittlement of high tensile steel components. In one of my workplaces we used to cadmium plate allen screws and hold the two halves of a medium sized solid fuel rocket motor together with them. In service the rocket motor used to lift a torpedo off ships and send it to search for submarines. One assembly was stood up for firing, and the head of a screw rolled out onto the deck of the ship. A new plating procedure was developed to inhibit embrittlement after that.

Yellow cad or zinc ? - ugh, ugly....

Shops that do cad plating for aircraft parts - which are about the only use for cad these days - just bake the parts in an oven for an hour or 3, to prevent any chance of embrittlement. No biggie...
Since cad plating is done in cyanide (not acid), and they are not in the tank very long, the chance of any embrittlement is almost negligible.

Using a socket or spanner on the hex head will take the cad off at the points of the hex quite readily.
Cad doesn't actually stand up to wet very well at all either, an equivalent coat of zinc will last longer.
But zinc goes powdery white in wet conditions.
choices, choices...

I have also liked SS100 for wheels,not as much scrubbing is required as for say Simple Green, which is a lot cheaper and what I usually use for frame/engine/gearbox. If parts are off and disassembled a soak in undiluted PineSol has worked great.

As far as cad plating, I used Quality Plating in Salt Lake City a few years ago for a Triumph with great results and much more economical than new SS parts, especially once you start getting into items like wheel spindles. Although SS looks great on CNW-style bikes, i usually like old original parts when possible and practical.
Brendan