Just out of curiosity.

Has anyone parkerised parts on there bike.

Im asking as in, do the parts stay black and resonably rust free.

I know folk parkerise old rifles ect, but restored old rifles are not ridden on the road in rain, sun, ect.

If you have parkerised bike bits like side stands, bolts, axles ect, how robust to the elements is it.

Im refreshing an old 650 road trail and am thinking about parkerising all the bolts, nuts, brake caliber housings, master cylinder housings, ect

Cheers

Hey Mick, never heard of parkerising, hows it work, what do you do, is it a DIY option?

Burnzy,

Parkerising is a methode to etch steel using phosphoric acid and manganese dioxide solution. Aparantly,the solution etches into the fisrt microns of steel at the molecular level. (Chemical bonding)

First you bead blast the steel so its clean as, Mix up phosphoric acid and manganese solution with clean water in a stainless steel bucket or stew pot. Heat to 200 Degrees faranhieght on a single burner gas camp stove. Dip the part in a seperate tub of hot water to pre heat part., then dip and leave in the pot with the phosphate manganese solution. The solution will fizz for 5 to 20 minuets or so. Pull out when fizzing stops. I think you dip in hot water again then dry part, Spray it with WD40 or light oil. Leave overnight. Its black as soon as you pull part out of phosphate solution. That is a satin black. Use the part in the morning. Thats all there is to it. If theres a spot not so black, ya just do it again. You would use tongs to turn parts over as solution fizzes. 

It comes out like the black that you see on restored guns that look new again. Parkerising is the term used for phosphating your steel. It apparantly stops the part rusting as the oil,WD40 ingrains into the metal a bit.

Ive seen all the steel nuts, bolts, stand, brackets, axle bolt/shaft on a klr650 done this way some years ago.I havnt seen a bike with parkerised parts that has thousands of kays so dont know the duability.

The phosphate solution is safe to use just with gloves and jeans/shirt. Dont need special gear, but youd do it outside the shed anyhow as your boiling acid so to speak.

Theres lots of explanations and youtube vids on the net that show how to do it as the yanks use it to parkerise guns, car parts, ect

You cant parkerise aluminium or stainless steel. Just ferros type steel.Some vids show blokes that use phosphoric acid and zinc instead of manganese as color comes out a grey. Phophoric acid is a rust remover and is available in hardware shops and pottery suppliers sell manganese dioxide in small amounts so im told. But dont know if phosphoric acid needs to be 100% rather than 35 to 85% as used in rust removers ect.

Have a bo peep on youtube / google. 

The below pic is a pic of some klr650 parkerised parts. The brackets and gear lever are normaly factory painted silver on klrs.

The parkerising looks good but i will prob wear thin with use and rust will set in. Thats my experience with guns anyway.

Edit: That 4 litres of phosphoric acid I got is 85%, not 100% acid as I thought.  So still all good. The paint shop in Ipswich dont normaly stock it but they had one 4 litre pack there that a bloke didnt pick up after ordering. But for your info, the paint supplies shop here said there happy to order it one 4 litre pack at a time anytime I want it. So obviously its easy for any paint shop to get.

Found the manganese dioxide at a Brisbane pottery/ceramics supplies shop. Its $9.00 for a kilo in powder form, so easy to get and cheap.

Just need to get an el cheapo electronic scales from Big W or K Mart as phosphoric acid and oxide powder is measured out by weight according to the mix ratios I can find online. Just gotta get a  temp guage, stainless pot from op shop and I should be good to go.

After going on heaps of gun restoration sites, car resto sites in US, I found heaps of threads on the "How to" but nearly all sites were very vague on the mix ratios.

All the "How tos" say after mixing in the acid and dioxide in water to make up the solution, they all say drop in half a handfull of steel wool to condition solution. not sure what that really does or why so I will post the whys if I find any.

Finaly found a mix ratio online. so i will put ratios up and pics when I parkerise some bits in maybe a couple weeks time for those interested.

Thanks Mick good info and an interesting option. I got a 10 litre stainless steel pot from an old dairy years ago. I think its a test pot? Its now my hot water service for camping. Farm Clearing sales maybe?

Edit, or a Milk factory? They should have heaps of stuff like this.