Hi carbking
My only question is how do you chromate the body. I haven't heard of that.
Rocky
Rocky - I don't, and probably neither do you.
Chromate to zinc alloy is accomplished by first chemically cleaning the casting in caustic lye, followed by a neutralizing water bath, followed by dipping in the chromate solution. The chromate solution is a combination of nitric, sulphuric, and chromic acids.
Chromic acid is on the EPA no-no list (and it should be as it causes both cancer and dementia according to the medical people). I believe one must have an EPA permit to purchase the stuff.
The way to do this is to find a company that commercially does the chromate treatment and pay them to do so. When we were doing 500 or so carbs annually, cost of chromating the bodies and plating the linkage averaged about $225. per carb. No parts, no labor, just the chromate and plating.
Note that we are talking about chromate, NOT di-chromate. Di-chromate implys electric current and is a form of electroplating certain metals (not zinc). The chromate is simply a dip.
Jon.
