What about all of the Nuts and Bolts on the Car?
How do you screw… your car together? What about your nuts? A lot of people have a drum of assorted fasteners that they have to scrounge in whenever the car is getting put back together. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea to keep all those odds and ends for another day. But what if you want to tidy your car up a bit or if you want something different, then this is something to think about.
Fasteners are something that not everyone thinks about when cleaning up or rebuilding their car. A budget option is to get all of the bolts from your car, replacing all of the rusted or broken ones from your drum of bolts. Then we put them all in a box (and a handful of extra ones while we are at it) and take them to get zinc or cadmium plated. This may cost between $50 and $100, and all of your bolts are plated like original again.
The next step up is to chrome plate your bolts. If you are doing this, you are best to get new bolts, as the finish will be much better. A full set (not including several special bolts) may cost between a $100 to $150. Then the chrome plating will cost between $100 and $200 depending on where you go, and if they are going to polish them or not.
Finally you come to the best of the best… Stainless steel bolts. They come with standard hex head bolts, Allen key heads, and button heads, which are like smooth button topped Allen heads. Some sizes and thread combinations may not be available, especially with the button heads. A full set could set you back $800, unless you know someone who can get you trade price or a discount.
Now you can combine these choices and put just stainless steel in your engine bay or whatever. Although stainless is expensive, you might as well get all of your screws and washers in stainless as they are only a matter of cents each. Also try using Nylok nuts, and Loctite and give those spring washers the flick, but not on any mechanical parts though. Here’s hoping to see some shiny nuts in the future…