Recently I have heard bad reports from Trigger and Hondasan on here about front hydraulic brake switches on Honda 4's ... I believe pattern parts .. not sure... which cause excessive front brake sponginess.
So I decided to refubish my originals. I sealed off the inlet port and connectors using adhesive lined heat-shrink and stripped the old plating then DIY re-plated BZP. This worked really well but the yellow chromate dip was very patchy. This is the toxic chromate type, which I bough about ten years ago but must admit I got the same poor results when it was new. I don't think DIY plating companies now supply this because of its chromic acid content. Has anyone used the modern alternatives that the likes of Gateros and YouPlate supply? I will contact Gateros anyway and ask for advice on the old gold passivate they used to sell. The other stuff for the bluish passivate works fine and was purchased at the same times as the gold, again it's the toxic content type.
More successful was the front solid brake line. Honda now supply the --317-- part with olive drab finish but the finish was BZP originally. I got a pattern one of these from Honda Classics (Roger Etcell) and nothing chemical I have in my arsenal would remove the coating on the pipe (i.e. 'proper' paint stripper, acid zinc remover or any solvents). I reckon it may be an olive drab finish coated with some kind of 2k clear coat that is hydraulic fluid resistant. Anyway I chemically stripped the BZP fittings and removed the olive finish mechanically. I then re-plated everything BZP and it now looks like the original Honda part supplied when the bikes were new.
Before I dipped it in anything, I sealed the pipe bore with suitable plastic plugs I made up to stop anything corrosive getting inside of the pipe.
