Refinishing your LT5 throttle cable clips

[Meanmyz]

Hi guys,

I recently had some of my throttle cable clips refinished and I want to make you all aware of the refinisher who did my work, just in case you might want to have the same thing done to your clips.

A couple of things I want to first mention: I am not trying to take away any business from Carter with his new billet clips (which are awesome), although I realize that this may happen (some will want an OEM look).

I have tried to find the OEM type finish (see more notes on this below).

The refinisher's name is Jim Ruffi and he has the website www.yellowzincplating.com. His prices were VERY reasonable. Expect to have your clips finished for around $20 plus shipping. Get ahold of him through his website and mention that he refinished my clips (Jeff Graff), so he knows exactly what you are wanting refinished. His turn around time is phenomenal.

Here is a picture of my refinished clips:




One thing I will mention is that these clips are not finished in yellow zinc, nor were the originals. This was a trial and error process, as I mistakenly thought the originals were yellow zinc and requested that because of a very slight yellow shade on some of the clips.

Because this ended up wrong, I took off the two nice unfinished clips on my 11,000 mile original '94 and asked him to try to identify the finish. Photo below:



Another pic of my nice originals:


Anyway, in asking why the originals had a slight yellow tint, here was Jim's response:

"In my opinion, those were zinc plated with a blue or clear chromate. Over time, the finish fades a little, losing both gloss and color, so it’s hard to tell for sure. I have no explanation for the very slight amount of yellow. It’s possible that the plater had some contamination somewhere that caused this. It could be that it was just one batch (of several hundred clips?) that had the yellow. Even new old stock parts could have been plated at a different time and could have a different finish. You have to look closely at different model years that had these clips and find out more.

Also, what I produced is typical plating using ammonium chloride plating chemistry cyanide or zincate baths would probably have a different finish, possibly less shiny. Also, you get different results when plating a large quantity at a time using a rack and different results using a barrel plating system!"


So if any of you are interested in refinishing your clips, send Jim an email, again at www.yellowzincplating.com . Lastly I will say, I don't have any extra clips. Four are for two of my cars, and my one extra is reserved for a friend. Consequently, if any of you have decided to go with Carter's billet clips, I need one more OEM original ('93 - '95) to finish out the set for my buddy who is short one. Let me know.

[Meanmyz]

Some of you guys that might have under 1000 mile NCRS cars...your clips whether nice or corroded, what you now have is 100% original, even if the OEM had some contamination in the plating...so for those cars, I would leave well enough alone.

But, for better than new clips, refinished as close too or even with the orignal finish, (but better), I say get them refinished.

They look absolutely awesome with refinished motors.

[Racinfan83]

I did mine by cleaning them with a wire wheel and then GM silver spray paint. Not as fancy as those - but they do look pretty good. At least the rust is gone..

[Meanmyz]

One more thing that I will add, (I am learning a little too) ...from Jim's site:

"Parts can also be simply left with the standard zinc plating or finished with iridescent 'blue' chromate for extra protection."

The nice ones that I have shown in the picture, have that very light color "iridescent 'blue' chromate for extra protection".

-the alternative being "yellow chromate" for extra protection (which is wrong), or "clear chromate" which I see must be an option from Jim's response in the first post.

Sorry, I am not trying to be too technical, but some will want to know. ...Under $20 man, get them refinished!

[LantanaTX]

My car is missing these clips. Can you post a link for the billet ones? Thanks

[Meanmyz]

Originally Posted by LantanaTX

My car is missing these clips. Can you post a link for the billet ones? Thanks

Lantana, I didn't copy the link, but if you go to the technical section, you can't miss it and I brought the link to the top.

[carter200]

Originally Posted by LantanaTX

My car is missing these clips. Can you post a link for the billet ones? Thanks

Here ya go: http://zr1.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22440

MeanmyZ, looks like we got em' covered

Thanks for the kind words PhillipsLT5

[PhillipsLT5]

Carter is the man, & those refinished look good, I got mine chromed

[LantanaTX]

Originally Posted by Meanmyz

Lantana, I didn't copy the link, but if you go to the technical section, you can't miss it and I brought the link to the top.

Originally Posted by carter200

Here ya go: http://zr1.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22440

MeanmyZ, looks like we got em' covered

Thanks for the kind words PhillipsLT5

Thanks! Carter has already sent a PM to me and will ship them out to me on Monday. I just got my car two weeks ago and these were missing from my car. It looks like someone used two washers that they bent on the edges to hold the cables. Looked like crap. Sunday I am taking the intake and cam covers off to refinish and the clamps will be the finishing touch.