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Cable clip colours

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adamb

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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.
 
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