• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Cable clip colours

Share this page

A

adamb

Member
Offline
Can anyone say which is the correct colour for metal cable clips uesd on healeys
I have some which are a gold colour and others which are a silver colour or did they use a combination of both
Adamb
 
I believe zinc plated (silver color) to be the more original of the two.

The cadmium plated (gold color) was likely a reproduced or generic clamp.
 
Hi Adam,

Concours guidelines say the clips were yellow zinc plated for the 100's and early BN4's and had semi-circular ends. From the late 100/6's onward (the exact change point is not known), these clips weere clear zinc plated with arched ends.

Cheers,
John
 
Cadmium and zinc plating are both silver in color. A good zinc plating has a bit of a blue cast, while cadmimum is closer to a whiter silver. The yellow color you see on plated parts is a conversion coating, which can be applied to either zinc or cadmium. My memory from the old days tells me that the yellow coating was a chromate finish, more of wash than an electroplate. Imersion in the chromate solution produced either zinc or cadmium dichromate on the surface of the part. I did work at a plating shop in college, both in the lab and on a cad line. Things have surely changed in the last 30+ years, but that's what I recall from way back when.
 
Back
Top