AFX spindle question on corrosion protection

[b-man]

I bought a pair of American Touring Specialties AFX spindles about 6 months ago through Marcus at SC&C for my 1964 Tempest, I am going to install them soon.

I was wondering if these forged aluminum spindles are coated with anything to protect them from corrosion, such as clear annodizing.

I would appreciate any informed input on this.

Thanks, Bart

[MCMLXIX]

I'm 95% sure they are not coated. Tyler had a small group of them annodized black for a special run. You can have yours annodized or powdercoated, just make sure they don't powdercoat the mating surface for the ball joint taper or the bearing pack...

[b-man]

A few years back I bought some aluminum coating chemicals (Alumiprep #33, Alodine #1001) used on aircraft to prevent corrosion.

Easy to use, you just clean the aluminum with the Alumiprep and then brush on the Alodine, both get mixed with water and rinsed off with clean water. The Alumiprep can also be used to clean aluminum in preparation for welding from what I understand.

I use it on all of my bare aluminum parts, I treated an aluminum 455 HO intake with it and plan to use it to protect a pair of Edelbrock Pontiac heads. You can buy the coating chemicals at http://aircraftspruce.com/

If it turns out the AFX spindles are not coated then I'll treat them with these chemicals. I'll use it on the cast aluminum spring seats that came with my SPC lower spring shim kit as well.

[DoABarrelRoll]

Anodizing > Powder Coating

Plus I don't think you have to worry about clearances when you anno' .

[LowBuckX]

About alodine

10. Waste Disposal Information:
Applicable regulations concerning disposal and discharge of chemicals should
be consulted and followed.
Disposal information for the chemical products used in this process is given
on the Material Safety Data Sheet for each product.
The processing bath is acidic and contains hexavalent chromium. Waste (HEX CHROME think Erin Brockovich) treatment and neutralization may be required prior to discharge to sewer.

[b-man]

Thanks for the input guys.

Looking for some input from Tyler at ATS on this.

[70 Chevelle]

I sent mine back to ATS for anodizing. The ball joint taper holes have to be reamed after anodizing in order to get the inserts back in.
https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=23722&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1210985728 (https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=23722&d=1210985728)

[b-man]

These spindles are definitely bare aluminum.

Did the alodine treatment on them today, thanks again for the help guys.

[TitoJones]

Sorry I didn't see this earler- The spindles are bare 6061-T6 aluminum with no coatings on them. Like Rich said we have done a few pair of special edition 'Black Widow' anodized spindles. The spindles have larger tolerances than the regular spindles as the anodizing process takes up some of the clearances we need to install the ball joint inserts and bearing packs.

Tyler