Topic: Natural steel finish

[ruger]

Hi,  can I get someone to post a picture of the rear spring u-bolt plate?   I've gotten mine sandblasted and am not sure I have ever seen one in a natural finish condition.  Unsure of the actuall color tone.  Thanks

[jwc66k]

That plate is a hot stamped item. The process requires heat to form the item then it is quenched (dropped) into oil to cool and give a protective coating. To get that "finish" I take a bead blasted part and "lightly" phosphate it, eg for a minute to a minute and a half in a hot water bath (190-200F) tank with half the recommend amount of phosphoric acid.
A sample of what I've done, a 64-66 center link, is below. I did a batch of three, One is in 6S1902.
Jim

[J_Speegle]

Believe the rear end plate that connects the leaf spring, rear shock and the rear end housing is bare stamped steel left untreated and unplated

I've normally (for nice unrusted) cleaned them up, applied gun bluing with steel wool then worked then to look like any new piece of steel. Others like to "tumble" the part to remove damage and imperfections in the metal. Focus IMHO is the end results since there are many paths to choose from

There is a picture in the article about reproducing natural finishes in the library That one may be a little lighter/brighter than some in person - ahh those digital pictures 

Other examples found by using the terms "natural finishes" in the search feature

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=5890.msg33184#msg33184


Though the question was for the staggered version the metal, likely supplier and finish are the same

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=18692.msg118381#msg118381

[Bob Gaines]

Hi,  can I get someone to post a picture of the rear spring u-bolt plate?   I've gotten mine sandblasted and am not sure I have ever seen one in a natural finish condition.  Unsure of the actuall color tone.  Thanks

The plate was bare steel . It was typically light in shade. Some people are advocates of a light phosphate finish so that they hold oil better from a maintenance stand point. IMO it changes the look too much but I understand the reasoning behind that technique.  If you blasted your plates then they will look like the wrong finish unless you further process them. To replicate the finish best you need to start out with some good unpitted plates. Slightly pitted plates will have a slightly different look on a sliding scale depending on how pitted they are. The next step is to have them tumbled in appropriate media. Some people like ceramic ,myself I like stainless steel shot media. FYI the steel shot is expensive. I was fortunate enough to buy a used tumbler at a auto shop closing auction that already had media in it. It was used for cleaning intake and exhaust valves at the shop.  After 20 minutes or so in the tumbler they come out with a fresh steel look comparable to NOS (using good cores of course). Just how I do them.