From: Jim Newton (jnewton@laurel.com)
Date: Sun Jul 13 2003 - 17:02:18 PDT
Hi List...
(WARNING: USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK. FOLLOW SAFETY
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OK.
I'm refurbishing the deuce cargo top for the summer.
I came to the point where I needed to replace the alligator buckles
that hold the side straps when you roll up the sides of the cargo
cover. Most of the originals were missing. I could not find a source
of black ones (too late...don't tell me your sources please!). The
local hardware/webbing/surplus stores only had the bright zinc-plated
alligator buckles. I thought about how cheesy those would look on the
deuce, but I bought them anyway. I figured I'd have to spray paint
them flat or semi-gloss black.
I brought the buckles home and tried to put some chemical gun bluing
liquid directly on one of the buckles, and it had almost no effect.
The bluing liquid that I had on hand was made by Birchwood Casey and
was made specifically for steel, not zinc.
So I dunked the buckles in a small container of full-strength regular
pool muriatic acid, which is actually hydrochloric acid at about 31%
concentration. The zinc was boiled right off the parts in about 60
seconds in a great mountain of foam and noxious toxic fumes! After I
fished the buckles out, they were BARE STEEL!
Then my son and I washed and dried the buckles thoroughly and then
used cold bluing liquid to put a black oxide finish on all of them.
They turned out GREAT! Just like the originals (which were mostly
missing). We used a bottle of bluing that I just happened to have
around (Birchwood Casey), but apparently the best stuff is Oxpho-Blue
which is available from gun stores including Brownell's
(www.brownells.com). Brownell's sells gallons for about $75.
You can also use muriatic acid to remove galvanized coatings from
bolts and other hardware so you can weld them or perform any process
that requires bare steel.
I'm sure the experienced hands on this list knew this trick already,
but I never knew about it...and I've had my share of fights with
zinc-plated and galvanized parts (pipe, bolts and hardware, hinges,
springs, etc.) from the hardware store! Thicker coatings of zinc will
take a little longer to remove (2 or 3 minutes). The acid doesn't
seem to eat into the steel very much at all...we left a random
galvanized part in the acid for an hour and it was fine. MIG welding
just doesn't work on galvanized parts! I wish I had figured this out
earlier!
Just passing this along for you all to tuck in the back of your files.
--Jim "Ike" Newton
o 1984 M1007 CUCV Military Suburban 6.2 Liter (378 CID) Turbo-Diesel Engine 5/4 Ton Cargo Capacity, 4WD
o 1971 M35A2 Military Troop/Cargo Truck "Deuce and a Half" 478 CID Turbo-Diesel Multi-Fuel Engine Air Shift Front Axle 2 1/2 Ton Cargo Capacity, 6WD
See These Trucks at www.CUCV.NET Keyword Searching of 22,000 Electronic TMs at www.MILDOCS.com
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