Zinc painted that all, then got out the Eastwood inside chassis paint that showed up Sunday morning:
Attachment 745438
The wire taped to the tube is to make it stay a bit straighter, since it comes coiled up in the box.

...I may have gone overboard in my zeal to have everything coated thoroughly:
Attachment 745439
Really should have put down some cardboard or paper. Thankfully, it cleans up with laquer thinner.

I also wanted to get that little area in the cowl, where I welded up the holes. It's isolated from the kick panel area, and only accessible from inside here:
Attachment 745440

Driver's side:
Attachment 745441
Attachment 745442

Passenger side is more difficult. There's a bulkhead and the stack for the HVAC intake over there between the opening and the other bulkhead that's like the driver's side:
Attachment 745443
Attachment 745444

It was a bit of a challenge to snake the tube through that opening at the top, then to the holes in the other wall, but possible with the wire attached to the tube. These are "after" as you can see by the overspray of the chassis coating outside of the holes. On the passenger side, I coated the entire HVAC plenum area, as that had a little surface rust as well, and is unreachable otherwise, except from inside the car with the blower fan housing out (which it is right now, actually.)

So that's all the welding. Next should be (re) removing the front suspension, and sanding the entire front end in anticipation of epoxy primer. The one remaining hinge needs to be cleaned up, of course, but I think I'll remove the doors and mask off the opening for the priming so I can get all of the hinge post area easily. Lot of sanding ahead, which will mostly be hand sanding, I think, but it's all just a surface scuff. Will need to paint very soon after to prevent rust formation on the bare areas.
That reminds me, I need a bigger/better moisture filter on my air line. The little Home Depot one I have on it is just not up to the humidity we have right now. Possibly add some moisture drops in my air lines.
I'd like to get a RapidAir kit and plumb up with that. Right now I've just got a hose coming in from the air compressor hutch and running across my shelving.

Oh, no, it seems that the front suspension has fallen off of the RX-7 again:
Attachment 745114

Ah, there it is:
Attachment 745115

And then I sanded for like a billion hours.
Attachment 745116

And cleaned the dirt from the undercoating in the wheel well:
Attachment 745117

*Almost* forgot to crawl under and sand the bottoms of the frame rails.
Attachment 745118
Attachment 745119

Which I'm glad I remembered, because I found this under the radiator support:
Attachment 745120

It's all surface rust, so not really a huge issue - the epoxy primer would have sealed all that away, but I'd prefer there be as little as possible to begin with.

So, various implements of destruction were wielded:
Attachment 745121
Attachment 745122
Attachment 745123
Attachment 745124
You can see that it got good and dark. I think I finished up about 10PM Saturday.

Sunday, we start with this:
Attachment 745104
Attachment 745105

Goddammit you fucks. Why do you do this, and then not include the wrench?
Attachment 745106

Fuck you, I have a grinder.
Attachment 745107
(I checked my other HF gun, and I had done this exact same thing to it previously! At least I'm consistent.)

Attachment 745108
Attachment 745109
Attachment 745110
....aaaaaaand this is why you always disassemble and clean a new gun. Really, HF? It's full of crap, yet you don't give me the tool you have to have to take it apart to get that crap out of there? Guess that's why they are $12. Even the strainer has schmutz on it:
Attachment 745111

Now, the HF cheap guns are a 1.4 (mm) tip. Primer typically is thicker, and wants a 2.0 or bigger tip. Thankfully, a 5/32" drill bit is 1.97something mm, and there is enough meat in the tip to drill it out, with the cap and needle still fitting and working properly. The things you learn on Youtube.
So I drilled it out:
Attachment 745112
Washed it all out in soapy water and dried it, ready to go.

Next problem, my air hose started leaking. I found the culprit:
Attachment 745113

Reused the barbed fitting by cutting off the collar, then enough of the hose to get past the weak point. In the future, I think I'll put a ball valve before the hose reel so the entire hose isn't under pressure constantly. Would help with the tiny leak at the reel swivel that makes the compressor run, too.

Now I need to figure out where I put the paint I bought some time ago (more on that in a moment. Took me about 30 minutes to find where I had stored it Attachment 745093
Attachment 745094

Oh, hey, forgot I had bought the high-build primer. The little can of hardener on top of the Kustom Shop black primer actually goes with the high-build.

Almost forgot to drain the compressor and hoses. Glad I did:
Attachment 745095
I guess it sucked in a lot of moisture running with that leak.

OK, got the paint, the gun, and the air - time to finish prepping the car. Uh oh, the door fell off:
Attachment 745096
Then the other one:
Attachment 745097

I went back over some areas with a wire cup brush on the grinder to get rid of any flash rust that appeared overnight, then sanded the bare-metal-to-paint transitions that roughed up. Wiped down everything with laquer thinner, then masked of the interior and rear of the car:
Attachment 745098
Attachment 745099

Windshield is going to be replaced, plus glass is easy to clean, so didn't bother much there.

Attachment 745100
Well, fuck. I'm not holding that stick up, it's standing by itself. Huh. When did I buy this paint?
Attachment 745101
!!
I could have sworn I bought it last year (which is still too long...)

Having nothing to lose, and noting that a) the pigments in the bottom were not solid, just thick, and b) the liquid part was still "paint", that is: sticky and would dry, I aggressively stirred the contents to get the pigment solids back into suspension.
Mistakes were made:
Attachment 745102
Attachment 745103

But it worked!
Attachment 745087
Attachment 745088
As you can see, dark once again. Only about 8 PM this time, though.

Primer sprayed pretty well from the modded gun, but primer is pretty forgiving. Most of the mess cleaned up fine with acetone, BTW. Fun part was sliding under neath to paint the bottoms of the frame rails and such.

After getting cleaned up, taking a shower, dinner, etc. I noted that the wind was getting pretty gusty outside. A cold front came through around 10-11 PM. I had put the hood and doors inside the garage, but I stepped outside to check everything. The paint was already dry to the touch, so I didn't worry about debris or anything getting it it. I guess the catalyst was still good - another thing I was concerned about with it being 2+ years old.

This morning (Monday) I discovered that the wind had blown the front fenders off of the table and sawhorse:
Attachment 745089
It had also blown the car cover, which I had rolled to just past the top of the windshield, down over the front end, actually putting the car cover *on* like it should be. It also managed to untie my flagpole rope from its cleat. Weird. No damage, though. May have scratched the fenders, but I couldn't tell there were any *new* scratches...

Paint still looks fine:
Attachment 745090
Attachment 745091
(The cover was like that, but rolled up to the roof. I only put it back on in the first place to protect the interior a bit - there was a possibility of rain.)

The cover, sadly, did not survive the wind:
Attachment 745092
It was already getting ragged and brittle - the wind just whipped it around, tearing it. Will have to get a new one of those, again.

Really happy to have gotten a major step done.
I hope that the high-build primer and color coat are salvageable, especially the custom mixed color - that was more expensive than the two primers combined, and it's just a house brand. I'll have to open it and the primer up and test spray a headlight door or something.

Next I think I will media blast and paint the crossmember and suspension. Or maybe not, since I really can't put that back in until I get color in there, and it would have to sit around getting scratched up. Hmmm...

WOW ! ! you must love metalworking, and painting! !

More like I *can* do it, and having someone else do it is expensive. :)
But actually, yeah, I do like making, repairing, and modifying things. Always have. I find it very satisfying.
If I had a shop, it would go a lot faster, as I wouldn't have to worry so much about weather, or putting everything away every time I stop.

House v.Next will have shops. Small machine shop for cars, pews and telescopes, reasonable garage with a 2-post. There will likely be a separate shop for dead tree carcass carving.

Oh, I have such plans, but my lack of ambition vis a vis employment has limited my findage. On the other hand, I don't hate my job and am not stressed about it, so...
Definitely separate the wood shop. That dust goes everywhere, even with collection.

As far as I am concerned, the 'hate my job' vs 'pay me lots to put up with you' ratio is critically important. Hopefully one day I'll get the FD resprayed in Soul Red Crystal which should look seriously badass. I do have to admit though, I really miss my FB.

Well, yeah. If one gets paid enough AND has enough free time to enjoy said pay outside of the job, that goes a long way toward making the job tolerable.
I have the kind of brain that can't do something they love as a job - I'd begin to hate/resent it. I can tolerate computers well enough, though doing it full time makes me much less inclined to fart with it at home. All my personal machines are ancient derelicts, though well-running ones. Newest machine I have is a 2013 MacBook Pro. And I just got that this year.
I've still got one of your FBs, you know...

Saturday turned out to be 70 degrees F (a change from the 50s and lower the week previous,) and it's going to be in the 70s all week, so I decided to scuff the epoxy primer and spray some high-build primer on the areas of the engine compartment that will be visible, to later at least do a pass at sanding and making those areas smooth.
Attachment 745069
Attachment 745070
Attachment 745071

Still getting the hang of the Harbor Freight HF gun that I modified to a larger tip (and was really too big for this particular primer, per the paint's instructions,) so got a few runs, but overall it sprayed nicely.
Hopefully I'll get some time to sand the primer this week or next weekend, and lay on some color.

edit: the paper masking is because I want the area inside the cowl to stay black.

I did actually work on the RX-7. Weekend before last, I sanded down the orange peel in the high-build primer.
Orange peel:
Attachment 745049

Light scuff with 320 grit makes it stand out a bit more:
Attachment 745050
So, yeah. Bit of orange peel.

No orange peel:
Attachment 745051

Scuff with 3M pad:
Attachment 745052

Here's all in one in one shot:
Attachment 745053

Then you do that for the whole thing. Here's half-way:
Attachment 745054

And all done (note the darkness):
Attachment 745055

Did rub through the grey into the black in a few spots, mostly edges, so I was already thinking about another light coat of grey primer.
Fast forward to Wednesday. I was off for Veteran's Day (thanks to all you who have served, BTW. I almost did, and probably should have) so I spent some more quality time with the '7. I decided to paint the cowl area as well as the engine bay, since it's right there, and I would have to mask and blend
if I did it later, as well as doing the forward part of the door jambs. This also cemented the requirement for another spray of high-build grey primer for the cowl area.
To start, I trimmed some windshield pookey that had squeezed out at the bottom:
Attachment 745056

Cleaned out that groove, and then got to work sanding the cowl smooth.
Here's a good illustration of how wrong the respray color was:
Attachment 745057

The brighter, more orange color is the factory Sunrise Red.
All sanded:
Attachment 745058

I slept in, so basically ran out of time to paint once I added an hour or better with sanding. This was about 3:30-4:00, and it starts getting dark at around 5 here now. You're supposed to wait and hour after painting to sand or topcoat the primer, which would put me right at dark-thirty, so I decided to go ahead and mask it up to prep for painting it Saturday.
At this point, I realized I had run out of masking film, so would have had to stop and run to the store anyway:
Attachment 745059

So I did run to the store, and grabbed fresh cans of Acetone and Lacquer thinner, since both of my gallons only had a few ounces left in them, a new roll of 1" blue tape, and the masking film, and then masked it up:
Attachment 745039

The little 18" x 10' strip of the film I still had left from the old row came in handy for that middle stripe where the new film didn't quite reach. The rear edges are loose so I can slap the doors back on for storage. I'll pull the doors back off on Saturday, seal up that edge, and go to town. I *really* hope the red paint is salvageable. I can buy more, but that custom-mixed paint is the expensive part.

A little LOL, I learned that you can buy Rustoleum gloss black spray paint in tallboys:
Attachment 745040

Finally.

Early Saturday afternoon:
Attachment 745041
Attachment 745042

Driveway was already grey - didn't need it to be red, too, hence the "drop cloths."
The bitch was that it decided to be windy. Fortunately it settled down while the primer cured (one hour to sand/topcoat.)

The red paint survived without settling out, somehow:
Attachment 745042
Only took normal stirring.

Some quality time later:
Attachment 745044
Attachment 745045
Attachment 745046
Attachment 745047
(missed a dent there by the hole for the wiper.)

One bug made a poor life choice:
Attachment 745048

Good gloss, and it laid down and covered nicely.
Attachment 745032
Attachment 745033
Attachment 745034

I did get a little orange peel, but no worse than OEM, and perfectly acceptable for the engine compartment.
Obviously, winter daylight hours fucked with me. Also, I was lazy and slept in...

All from the HF $12 HVLP. I did forget that the cup on my original gun leaks from the lid:
Attachment 745035
Attachment 745036
This was from laying down under the car painting the lower bits and undersides. I looked like I was involved in a massacre.

I made sure I remembered to use the *other* cup next time.
Attachment 745037
I also have some of the HF disposable cups... that I completely forgot I had until later.

I also soaked it a bit too long in the acetone while cleaning, I think - the powder coat started to peel on the hook portion:
Attachment 745038

It turned out better than I expected, if I'm honest.

This lid has leaked from new - I just forgot about it. I need to check the other one, but I don't *think* there's supposed to be a gasket. There certainly isn't one on this one. On the second load of paint, I draped a blue shop towel (the paper ones) across the opening, then screwed the lid down, and tore off the excess towel. That seemed to work, though of course you have to deal with the blue towel soaked with paint when you open it back up. Still better.
My dad has mentioned having to tie a rag around the lid on old-school high-pressure siphon guns when he was painting stuff, so I guess it's just something one has to deal with to some extent.


I stepped out at lunchtime to unmask the thing, and slap the doors back on it.

The paint isn't a perfect match, but not far off:
Attachment 745021
Attachment 745022
Those areas are in the door jamb, and should be mostly unfaded. The lower jamb was even covered by the sill plate all its life. Looks like the new paint needs a bit more yellow. Ah well, good enough for jambs and engine bay.

That bug *tried* to get out, or at least wandered around a bit before succumbing:
Attachment 745023

All unmaskified:
Attachment 745024

This is probably the worst orange peel, and it's on the mounting surface of the fender, where it will be half covered up:
Attachment 745025

Most of the engine bay is more like this:
Attachment 745026
Still some peel, but not bad.

Fenders and doors reattached:
Attachment 745027
I put the cover back on, and it will likely stay just like that for the next 3 or 4 months, because fuck winter, even in TX.

Here's a spot I sprayed with no prep on one of the doors while clearing out the gun.
Attachment 745028
The stripe in the groove is original paint that was under the OEM rub strip when the car was repainted (they painted the rub strip, too... And the wipers, mirrors, window frames and trim, hatch hinges, door handles, door locks, license plate lights, bumper end caps... All red. Eurostyle!


I did make one faux pas. It never dawned on my that the front wheels were right there under the car when I was priming. :doh:
Attachment 745029
Attachment 745030
Maaaaaaan.

That's both black epoxy and grey urethane primer. WD-40, Goof-off, and regular "paint thinner" didn't touch it. Xylene didn't touch it. Lacquer thinner barely touched it. Acetone finally did the deed, and so far doesn't seem to be harming the factory finish, whatever it is:
Attachment 745031
The spoke on the left was lacquer thinner, upper spoke is acetone, after about 15 minutes of work. Hopefully I can do the whole thing and not have to re-clear or repaint it. Oy, sometimes I'm dumb.

I ordered these a few days before Thanksgiving:
Attachment 744967

Hood bumpers specced for Nissan stuff, but fit a fair number of models, including our Kia, of all things.

See, I modified my car many years ago to use adjustable hood bump stops from a n E30 BMW, after discovering, while perusing wrecking yards, that a lot of European cars used hood bumpers that adjusted by just screwing the rubber bit in and out, rather than like my Olds that used a rubber bush on top of a threaded steel stud. The RX-7 just had pop-in nubbers from the factory. I enlarged the hole a bit, and cut a slit to allow the threads on the BMW bumpers to screw in:
Attachment 744968

I bought the Z-Spec silicone ones after verifying that the ones in our Kia were the same size as the BMW ones, by the simple expedient of screwing one of them into the RX-7. They didn't cost any more than aftermarket rubber BMW bumpers, and way less than OEM E30 bumpers. Plus: red!

Now, I tested the Kia one on the passenger side. The Z-spec bumper threaded right in:
Attachment 744969

Driver's side, as you may note from the first picture, was a little... misshapen. I carefully opened that up with a grinding bit on my Dremel (my paint!), and also carefully adjusted the sheet metal near the slit to make the screw work better:
Attachment 744970

then daubed a little zinc paint on to the raw metal, and down in the hole where there was a little rust (it's a mostly blind hole, apparently):
Attachment 744971

Screwed all the way in (bottoming out in the hole, but not out of threads) they were a little tall:
Attachment 744972

So off came a chunk at the bottom:
Attachment 744973

And then, because they're still a little tall, an extra half-turn of threads:
Attachment 744974
Attachment 744975
Attachment 744976

Better:
Attachment 744977

So now the hood is setting there, at least. Unfortunately, it rested on the pain on one side near the front before I notice, and chipped it, so I'll need to retouch that when I paint the hood hinges, and whatever else needs painting. I put a few layers of blue tape there to keep it from getting worse, and will probably put some blue tape on the rear edge of the hood to keep it from chipping the cowl.

Surprise! Not only an update, but actual RX-7 content!
That's right, winter is over, and it's time to get something done on this thing. And then probably stop because house things take priority or something. Whatever.

So, for this episode, we start with the pile of front suspension in the back yard:
Attachment 744785

I'll mess with the struts another day. Today, it's the rest of the parts:
Attachment 744786
Attachment 744787

Sadly, my Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings have all gone crispy:
Attachment 744788

I can't be too upset. They're over 20 years old, I think. I'd have to go look at my written records, since their install predated my spreadsheet.

Looks like it's time for new ball joints, too:
Attachment 744789
The other one wasn't as bad, but will still replace. I have a press.
Attachment 744790

Right now, first-gen RX-7 "experts" are cringing and don't know why. Common wisdom is that you replace the entire control arm, not the ball joint, because ball joints that have been replaced have a habit of coming loose. Which is funny, because one of those ball joints was replace 2 decades ago, and is still firmly in the control arm. I'd say the problem was due to parts stores and amatuers hamfisting the install. Even so, I can tack weld them in if need be.

The inner nut on one of the radius arms gave me some grief. It did not want to budge. It took, PB B'Laster, heat, and eventually a 3' cheater on my adjustable wrench
(note to self: buy a 27mm combination wrench) to get it loose. And I cleaned up the threads in front of it after it seemed more inclined to go "on" first.

Attachment 744791

You can see the threads got a little crappy where the were inside the steel sleeve that goes through the mount bushings.
Attachment 744792

After chasing and a trip to the wire brush wheel:
Attachment 744793

The other one gave me no trouble, but just to be thorough, I did the same to it:
Attachment 744794

The nut on the troublesome side was still a bit recalcitrant (when the other three would thread on easily,) so I chased it through with a tap as well.
Having the tools to do stuff like that is a joy.

Exploided view:
Attachment 744795

And then came time to media blast everything.
First, of course, I decided to fiddle with the media blaster. I didn't feel like dragging out my big shop vac, so I made an adapter to connect up the much-more-portable little bucket vac:
Attachment 744774
Attachment 744775
Attachment 744776
Later, I added a little length of chain to keep it from running off.

The media blaster was being extremely bitchy. It worked OK at first, but the media was surging. You can hear, and definitely feel, the media drop back down the feed hose, then slam back up to the gun. I tried adjusting the air bleed on the gravity feed (I posted about that some time ago), fiddling pressure, changed out the feed hose from the 1/2" that was on there, but had developed a kink, to a 5/8" reinforced hose that I had bought when I installed the gravity feed. Nothing worked consistently. I would have to stop and back-pressure the gun constantly to clear it, and occasionally remove the feed hose from the gun and blow it clear. Sometime tapping the gun against the part worked... but I tapped too hard at one point.
Attachment 744777
(the zip tie is because I'm using a foot pedal, added after I installed the Skat triggered gun.)

Here's a short vid of the media surging. Kind of hard to see through the hose, but you can:
Attachment 744778

I was mad at myself, and Skat. fortunately, I had a Harbor Freight (I think - it probably came with the HF cabinet I sold, or maybe was the original on this cab.) gun in my parts stash:
Attachment 744779
I got clever and added a HF flashlight, because it's tough to see through the window sometimes, even with all the LEDs I put in the cabinet.

This actually worked better. It was still surging, but this one was easier to clear if it got blocked up. And easier to get replacement nozzles for. The Skat uses their nozzles, and only came with steel ones. Carbide and ceramic ones were extra...

One potential issue was that it was really humid, and my little swirly dryer was not keeping up. I drained it and the tank twice, but I think enough was getting through to mess with the media. Coal slag isn't as bad at clogging up due to moisture as some media, but I had enough dust from using it previously that it was being problematic. I still managed to at least get the parts I had started done. Moisture was confirmed when I wen to blow he parts off after blasting, and got vapor... Guess I may need to buy a desiccant dryer for paint and blasting.

The crossmember actually fit inside the cabinet, but only just, and I couldn't see or reach the ends with the door closed, so I had to get creative:
Attachment 744780

That allowed me to shift it enough to get the very ends.
Attachment 744781

Didn't make too much of a mess:
Attachment 744782

Because of all that, I only got the crossmember and the steering arms done:
Attachment 744783

Wiped down with mineral spirits, and huing up to paint:
Attachment 744784

And painted, using Rustoleum black Appliance Epoxy. I've found that paint to be very durable (as you would hope).

Sunday, I got back at it, making sure everything was drained *first*. Had a bit more success. The media was still surging, but only clogged rarely. I just had to pause a second every 10 seconds or so to let the media climb back up the feed. I think maybe a ball valve in the feed to restrict flow might help. Only allow as much media as the gun can use at the time.

Before and after comparison of the radius rod brackets:
Attachment 744768
Attachment 744769
Attachment 744770

Man I love taking rusty shit and turning it into clean parts!

Sunday's batch:
Attachment 744771

I was running out of steam. I gamed until 4:30 AM Saturday night, then had to get up and take my daughter to get her vaccination at 9 AM Sunday morning. I could have gone back to bed, but decided to get something done first, and this was it. Got those done, with enough energy left to paint them.

This is what I mean about the moisture:
Attachment 744772

Only seemed to show up Sunday when I had the blowgun wide open, though.
Sunday stuff painted, with the Saturday stuff in the background still hanging:
Attachment 744773

Still need to do the anti-sway bar, and the control arms. The bar will need to hang out of the cabinet, and I'll wait to do the control arms until after I press in the new ball joints and bushings, so I don't mess up the paint doing so.

Some progress on the RX-7 this past weekend.

I started blasting the hardware for the front suspension.
Attachment 744757
Attachment 744758
Strut rod washers and anti-sway bar mounts, before and after. Texas, so mostly just grime, old paint, undercoating, and some surface rust, thought there is pitting where water gets trapped, like on the washers where they rested against the bushings.

Just after I started, I realized that the protective sheet on the glass was about done. So I slapped a new on on there.
I have a big roll of lexan sheet I got from Grainger just for this. I've already cut a bunch to fit, so a bit of cleaning and some double-sided Scotch tape and I was ready to go.
Attachment 744759

Yeah, pretty foggy:
Attachment 744760

Now clear as glass :dadjoke:
Attachment 744761
It's like a frog in boiling water - you don't realize how bad it's gotten until you fix it. Sort of like cleaning one's glasses, I suppose.

I also modified the media feed (after this blast session - I didn't have the parts when I actually blasted these parts)
Attachment 744762
Attachment 744763

A test blast was very successful. Closing it down about half way gave me a nice, constant stream of media. Great success!

All blasted:
Attachment 744764

And now to plating.
Here's the two sway bar brackets. The one on the right is as fresh out of the media blaster, the one on the left is after a trip to the mounted Cheek Poker 9000 (wire wheel on a bench grinder):
Attachment 744765

Here's after a trip through the plating tank:
Attachment 744765

The plating rig for reference:
Attachment 744749

And a second strike:
Attachment 744750

So, you can see the dark areas and grit on this one. The grit is just loose stuff that brushes off. What's going on here is that I was letting the rig self-regulate the current. I set the voltage and let the "system" pull as much current as it wanted. Upon re-reading my notes and checking some sources online, that is absolutely the wrong way to do it. Doing that gets you what I got - "burned" corners (actually too much plating on sharp edges) and reduced plating on recessed areas, like the 90-degree bends from the flat bit to the curved bit. The best way to go is to control the current, and let the voltage do whatever it needs to do to support the current. And you control the current based on the area of the part to be plated (80-140 mA per square inch.) That gets you nice even plating everywhere. You also need to turn the part a few times to make sure you have no shadows - plating is more or less line-of-sight from anode to part (I did that.)

Here's the part after a trip to the wire brush:
Attachment 744751

The industry uses additives to get this sort of finish without brushing, but they are all proprietary secrets. Supposedly you can add sugar of pure light corn syrup as a brightener, but that also makes the solution attractive for algae and stuff.

This is after a dunk in the yellow chromating solution:
Attachment 744752

Something not quite right. The color is all over the place, but it sees to have actually done its actual job of hardening the surface everywhere.

I hadn't figured out my current control problem before I did the second piece, so I was getting massive issues plating inside the curve and those aforementioned inside corners. I resorted to the plating brush, which works, but is tedious.
Attachment 744753

It's just an acid brush with a chunk of zinc attached. It's wired to the power, and you just dunk it in the solution often, and brush on. It can be used when you can't dunk the entire part in the solution, or just need a spot fix. It's slow, but it works.

This is a store bought corner brace. I was testing the chromating solution:
Attachment 744754
Attachment 744755
Solution was fine. The darker end is from a bit of the solution I added a little acid to, but turns out way too much, and unnecessary. As you can see, it did a nice job on theis pre-plated part, so my plating is the issue.

And just for fun I dunked it in the black chromating solution, too.
Attachment 744756

With a big batch of fasteners, it was time to get my plating barrel up and running. First thing I need is zinc anodes. What I have is pie wedges of zinc(because the guy selling them apparently cast them in a cast-iron cornbread pan.)
Attachment 744738
But I also have a bandsaw.

I made a huge amount of swarf:
Attachment 744739

And got this:
Attachment 744740

And then I realized this was dumb and more trouble than it's worth, and dropped $30 on Amazon for some zinc flashing:
Attachment 744741

Then I can just cut pieces of it off and sort of drape them over the edge of the tak, and run a bare copper wire under them:
Attachment 744742

I was concerned about the line-of-sight thing with the wedges. It's easy to add more strips as needed, here, but this as is provides good "coverage."

And now we need a solution. 2 gallons of water, 250 mL of acetic acid (AKA white vinegar), and 300g or so of washing powder (sodium carbonate. You can also use Epsom salts. What we're doing is making the water conductive.) The thing at the end is a fish tank heater, and the other thing at the end is a fish tank bubbler. Plating likes it warm, and well-agitated.
To get the zinc in the solution, you either dump in zinc sulfate powder, or you just use two pieces of zind, one connected to positive, one connected to negative. Since they're both zinc, the ions just go into the solution.
However, I made a boo-boo. Can you spot the issue:
Attachment 744743
















Got your guess in?
So these are the two I had connected to positive:
Attachment 744744

The problem is that I had the copper wires that they are hanging from also in the solution and had them connected to positive, which determines where the ions come from. If I had them negative, there likely would be no issue.

Just to see if anything really detrimental happened, I did a test plate:
Attachment 744745
Attachment 744746
These are the same bolt (lower control arm pivot). Upper is fresh from the blaster, lower is after a couple "strikes" in the tank. I can see a little bit of a copper tinge, but it seems to bhave plated nicely, and stayed really bright! You saw the dull gray of the anti-swaybar bracket previously. That's typical. This is an interesting result.

I then chromated that bolt. This is after letting i cure a day:
Attachment 744747
Attachment 744748
I left it in too long, so it's dark, but it seems to have worked fine. The washer is one I did earlier in the small tank, and black chromated.

To make sure it had actually plated, I stuck the chromated bolt in a pie tin full of salt water, along with a freshly blasted screw as a control:
Attachment 744735
That was Monday night.

Tuesday morning, it looked like this:
Attachment 744736

No sign of rust on the plated bolt at all. I did roll it over to check the other side as well.
I'm going to leave it another day or so, and if it remains corrosion free, I'll move ahead with this solution.

While I was fiddling with stuff, I filtered the small tank's solution. It was way too dark for my liking. There was... stuff... in the bottom:
Attachment 744737
gross

I may just dump that and make a fresh solution. It's not like it's difficult or expensive. I think I will swap to using the flashing in that tank as well. The chunks on copper wire were what I was using in the small tank previously.

Great series of posts.