Plating parts

Something that makes a engine bay on a car look fresh is fresh plating on parts. There are so many parts that get a dip of Zinc, cadmium, nickel, chrome that it is sometimes hard to tell what was used from new. Some plating looks similar, Zinc looks like silver Cad except silver cad has some faint greens and yellows in it. Polished nickel look like chrome with a slight gold tint. Dull nickel has a nice soft platinum look.

I often use photos and take notes at shows and also think about what the manufacturer uses based on what is cost effective. Some uses of plating do not make sense for example, why does certain car have a silver cad door catch with black oxide screws to hold it in place? What do you do when the photos show a car to have silver cad linkage (which may be wrong) and the linkage on the carburetors has gold cad finish?

I get so nervous when I send off all of these parts for plating. What if they loose one screw or minor part? What if the delivery truck goes off the road and all the parts are strewn about the side of the road!

All the parts in these photos are going for a of gold cad or silver cad finish.