Suspension Finishes

[MJinCO]

I'm going to be building some new front suspension control arms this winter and would like to know how people are finishing them. I'm changing from the original Spitfire upright modified to have a lower ball joint apparently from a '60's Cooper to a bottom 5/8" rod end so will be making some new control arms to fit. The control arms will be 7/8" 4130 tubing with rod ends, my current control arms and some old uprights appear to be Cadmium plated and am curious how newer ones are finished.

[Rick Kirchner]

Vintage car? Nickel. Electroplated if you can get it, electroless if you can't

[MJinCO]

Yes, very vintage 1971 Ocelot, thanks for the info.

[10rmotor]

We used bright nickel plating on our Amac DSR suspension pieces. It seemed pretty durable even after many years of use. One of the nice things about that finish is if you needed to weld on it there were no issues with contamination.

[jrh3]

Hopefully someone will jump in with a discussion of embrittlement.
Electroless, electroplated nickel and cadmium as well as need for post plating baking of mild and higher strength steel.