Imitating Cadmium Plating


Many of the under hood components came cadmium plated (that metallic gold color plating). Unfortunately, on my ZX, most of it has worn off due from age and grime.  This is my best attempt at duplicating the original plating. You can by kits from The Eastwood Company for ~$40, though, having the exact look wasn't important to me (and I didn't want to spend the $40 on the kit).

Here's what I did

  • Clean the surface very well; use a wire brush or steel wool (this one has been bead blasted); mask off anything you don't want painted:

  • Spray the surface with a highly metallic silver type paint. I used Duplicolor's High Temp engine enamel, Aluminum. Krylon's Metallic Chrome paint would work well too. Coat the entire surface:

  • Apply clear coat to the previous coat; don't wait for it to dry. Apply the clearcoat by spritzing it lightly onto the surface.

  • Apply a highly metallic gold paint; don't wait for the clear coat to dry. I used Krylon's Gold Metallic paint. Apply it by spritzing it onto the surface; do this unevenly so that you have sections with a lot of gold and sections with almost none. It will look splotchy.

  • Apply another coat of clear coat; again, don't wait for the previous coat to dry. Apply by spritzing onto the surface.

  • Apply a coat of bronze paint. I used Duplicolor's Bronze wheel paint. Apply it in a very light coat, holding the can ~24" from the surface. You are looking to just dull and dust the surface.

  • Follow up with a final coat of clear coat. Don't wait for the previous coat to dry; spritz the paint onto the surface (note: because you are "sprtzing" the paint onto the surface, the paint will be thin. If you are getting thick coats, you are putting on too much paint).

  • And the finished product (I used a satin clear coat so it will dry with a low-gloss finish; the paint here is still wet):



  • And to give you an idea; here are some other things I've done using the same approach: