We’ve moved into the next phase of the project. The rear axle rebuild. About a month ago, we fully disassembled the rear subframe assembly. Our goal was to refresh anything that was obviously worn and refinish everything. Powder coating the subframe, trailing arms, brake disc dust covers and subframe support brackets. The hardware was to be plated. I didn’t have the easiest time finding a plater but eventually did. They offered trivalent yellow zinc with seal coating. After spending about 15 hours degreasing, sand blasting, wire wheeling all of the parts, I dropped them off. I picked them up 2 days later and they looked amazing. I checked in with a fellow forumite Jens (jhh925) who has been super helpful and supportive during our build. He informed me of something called hydrogen embrittlement. This occurs when the steel gets weakened by hydrogen molecules during the plating process. It can lead to stress fractures in critical hardware. It can be avoided by baking the parts immediately after plating.
After learning about this, I called my plater and he told me that they didn’t bake it because I didn’t ask. I obviously was really upset by this not only for the time and money, but the risk I might have been put in by using these fasteners. He was well aware that they were for an automobile restoration and didn’t recommend it.
So, I’ll be spending the next few hours looking up all of the bolts on BelMetric. Most of this beautiful hardware will be going in the garbage as a result.
I’m hoping that this story saves someone time, money and possibly something far more valuable.
Super big shout out to Jens for the knowledge and help keeping us safe.


