Welding a zinc yellow plated grade 8 bolt

[sportbike]

I need to tack a zinc plated bolt to a steel plate... should I just grind off the zinc plating where the tacks will be? Also will the heat greatly affect the strength of the bolt? (Should I do 1 tack and let it cool before the next tack??)

The bolt is a 1" x 3" bolt so it will take a lot of heat to get it hot.

I also will be doing the same to a 1.5" bolt on the next project......

If you are tack welding a 1" gr8 bolt to a plate, I doubt you need to be concerned with the strength of the bolt dropping. Is the plate intended to tranafer load from the bolt? Is grade 8 specified for some reason?

You can grind the zinc or just weld it as is. The zinc could add a very small amount of porosity to the welds, but it is minimal. Grinding won't hurt anything.

The proof load for a 1-8 gr8 bolt is over 72,000 lbs.
For a 1.5-6 grade 8 is is over 168,000 lbs.