[jbradway]

Has anyone used the OEM Paints NU-CAD gold from the Classic Ind. catalog for doing their power brake booster? Also I would be interested to know if the paint kit that Eastwood puts out for the same application is any good.

[grail]

My advice on your project- Forget the paint it all looks terrible. Look up Howards Prop Shop in Casper Wyoming and send your bare booster halves to them to be dichromate plated. They are very reasonable, fast and do a very quality job. Mine came out beautifully. Any good search engine will find them (try Yahoo)

[jbradway]

Thanks for your response. I have found a few places that want $175 for a rebuild including the gold iridite plating. Seems a bit high when I can buy one from Ricks for a little over $200. If I could get the booster apart, I would get it plated. Is there some special tool to break the booster halves apart?

[NORTHERN FRIEND]

It takes a bit of work. If you have a chisel with a flat face not a sharp edge this will work great. You will need to hit the tabs counterclockwise to seperate the unit. Mine was tough to get apart so make sure that you only hit the tabs on the bottom to lower sides of the booster. The damage to the tabs can be fixed with a file but it's still a good idea to to the hammering out of site.
I agree with grail, I would not go near the paint.

[jbradway]

Thanks Northern friend. I am going to give it a shot this week. I am staying away from the paint since I have enough parts that need plating to justify a trip to the platers.

[grail]

Hi again- to separate the booster halves, run a pair of old nuts down on the master cylinder studs. Clamp in a LARGE vice. Have an assistant help to keep the vice from turning (a crow bar thru the vice jaws below the gripping region works well) Use 2 LARGE crescent wrenches on the mounting flanges to turn the back half. It may take a bit of torque to break it loose but it does work.
Note- if you have front disc brakes, the caliper mounts were also plated the same. Send them in too!