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Commercial grade zinc-plated rivets on car wheels are rusting [California] 

August 3, 2007

We are an aluminum wheel manufacturer. Recently we applied zinc plated rivets on painted aluminum wheels, and rivets became rusty in a few months being in the field. Is it a defective plating or is it expected to fail that fast?

Vadim Gorokhovsky
engineer - Chino, CA

Zinc plating is usually not considered suitable for outdoor exposure. Rivets, because the substrate metal and the zinc plating on them must be stretched and distorted to form the head, is even less satisfactory.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, NJ