In my thread about 04A engine resto we touched upon the pulleys being light gray phoshate. After pressure washing the heck out of my C-1 car I have come across some very telling phosphate and would like to share what I think on the matter. If I didn't know any better I'd say that all the parts on this car that were phosphated were done at the same place & time..NOT by outside seperate vendors as the color and "sparkle" are very very close in appearance from piece to piece.. Having a four speed now ,I was surprised to see the clutch crossshaft "Z" bar was gray phosphate as well as the throttle lever. The hood latch and hood hinges as well as the pulleys. The following pictures show that this particular batch of phosphating was very very sparkly..Way more so than these pictures show..
the below picture shows the tube of the "Z" bar

More phosphate..throttle arm

Hood hinge

Fan pulley.....
All these pieces are original to the car and are relatively untouched. If you check the pictures on the O4A engine thread you'll see pulleys that were redone by Jerry McNiesh..If you have the money then send your stuff to him.. He did a great job of both color and staying power..
I saw phosphate on ebay that a fellow claims can be applied to beadblasted parts if mixed in boiling water? I've bought this stuff as an experiment and will report back with findings on wether it is any good or not. I do not know how phosphate is industrially applied and could use a lesson if anyone knows...
I want to begin a list here of all the parts that are phosphated from the factory for 67 Camaros much like I've done for galvanized parts

The process of phosphating

Some light reading before the experiment begins in a few days

Ok. All in all last nights experiment was a success in 'doing it at home and on the cheap".
The process is very very simple and quick.. 45 minutes start to finish.
The first thing to do is gather the parts and go to your neighbors house and borrow their BBQ grille
I found that the mixture is very generalized as all thats really required is to have the Phosphate solution mixed with the water.. I put 6 oz. into 1 gallon of water. It says to bring the temp to around 200 degrees. The grill I had could not boil the water as the wind was blowing etc but the water seemed hot enough.

I used 3 media blasted parts to experiment with.

#1 Wire tower:I will paint one side to see what truth there is that this gray phosphate makes and excellent primer and premotes adhesion. The other side I am going to oil up with WD40 per instructions and leave in a humid enviroment to see how long until rust developes (or discoloration)..I left this piece in the pot during the whole experiment and it is much darker in color FYI
#2 The pulley. Now this was beadblasted with glass bead and was very smooth like new steel. I left this one in for 8-10 minutes and took it out and did nothing with it.
#3 The alternator fan/pulley. Now this piece was sandblasted with much more coarse media. I left it in for the same amount of time as the pulley. Both pieces I flipped & flopped and stirred up to remove any air bubbles ect.. This piece I followed the instructions to the letter: I washed it clean with a garden hose immediately after removal from the pot. I then blew it dry with compressed air and soaked it with WD40 and let it sit a few minutes..I then wiped as much WD40 off with paper towels as I could. This piece came out nearly as nice as the fan/pulley I paid to have done!!!!

*** This morning when I checked on the parts I found that the pulley(crank pulley) had a brown petina on it (rust) just from sitting inside the garage over night!!! It is obviously a vital step to wash and soak with oil immediately!

There is a sandblasted fan pulley in the upper right corner of the photo to help you notice the color difference

Now.. I installed the fan to the alternator I had rebuilt and held it up to the restored one on my engine.. As you can see things have turned out great for a home spun project. Next time I am going to try to put the parts in water that is actively boiling. The instructions mention the sparkly look of OEM but mine and the ones I paid to have done have zero metallic sparkles in them. . That is something I would like to solve.

In case anyone is wondering why bother? Well look at this comparison shot of an NOS black painted pulley (NORS actually) next to the gray phosphate.. It is my opinion that the gray phosphate has a look of legitimacy your never going to get from a spray can! I like the matte finish and the unique color as well.

Very nice Tom!

Looks great!

Great work Tom. I know Gary and myself are in the same area of getting stuff ready to go for phosphate coating, this thread could save us some $$$. Looks great, let us know how it lasts over the next couple weeks. It does look better to me than the NORS color. Care to share the brand name you used? Did you wait for the neighbour to go out for the evening to use their BBQ or just show up and start boiling chemicals?

Tom,
You might just want to consider skipping the cookout at the neighbors this weekend.

My neighbor is cool.. It's my buddie that I borrowed the lobster pot from that is gonna have issues

I got the phosphate from Ebay but the guy said he had very little left. I will look into it and fess up any contacts that will work for those that want to try. I highly recommend it.. It was cool doing it and I'm looking forward to trying some variations on the theme.

Ebay Phosphate

This is the guy I bought mine from. He claimed to have very little left at the time.