Bolts, nuts and washers to the rescue

[a_ahmed]

Well lame thread or not, lame idea or not, practically necessary or not... thought I'd throw this out there into some kind of form of discussion.

Having taken pix of my current build merged with a mixture of brand spanking new high dollar craving parts and deep under the sea Nissan branded titanic ship wreck salvaged parts... I thought it'd make sense.

Alot of the bolts and nuts are original items and they work.. to an extent... but hell do they look ugly. They really offset the new parts alright. Who cares? Well I do want to keep this car 'forever'. When the money is right I plan to restore her to a further pristine condition. Stupid maybe but alas I'm already in deep poo like the most of us having spent so much money on a car project.

From subframe bolts and nuts to diff ones, to fender and bumper holding bolts, to the arms and various other gizmos out there, anything goes... could we compile a list?

Specs? Grade? Sizes? Sources? Material? What can hold? What can break? What is necessitated and what is not. I mean take a look at some of the pix I took... it just looks pathetic, mint subframe with zero rust, brand new top dollar SPL arms, all beatifuly composed amongst rust shots.

In the words of one clever man, "I need a tetnus shot after seeing your rear swaybars..." that says it all :P Rust is pure evil

Some of the rust just PISSES ME OFF! :angry:

I mean look at some of these bolts and nuts :-/





I am a perfectionist and I do want to spend the time and money down the road to make this absolutely rust free... so discuss

[racepar1]

Wanna be a gangster? ALL titanium fasteners! It'll cost 10x more than building the rest of the car, but damn would it shave a LOT of weight! LOL!

Your car seriously has some rust problems though man. You should strip it down to nothing and repair every last bit of rust damage if you truly intend on seriously tracking it. **** the ONLY rust in my car (and that includes all the nuts and bolts) is in the spare tire well because the hatch seal leaks (duh). God I love so-cal! LOL! Rust free cars as far as they eye can see!

[Def]

Word - my car is rust free except for one little bolt back in the hatch area due to water leaks(which is from the tail lights in my case). That's soon to be taken care of.

As far as Ti fasteners go, you can get some in UNF(fine pitch) for pretty cheap due to aircraft surplus(which is drying up now compared to the 90s), but metric stuff is damn near impossible to find around here.

You are right though, they are way lighter, and a benefit - 160 ksi tensile strength. I happen to have 4 holding my MAF adapter on for the hell of it. haha Look on eBay for deals, you'd be surprised how per bolt they can come out to not THAT much more than say buying a few bolts in a plastic bag from Lowes/Home Depot in a pinch.

As far as chassis rust - I agree. I'd be way more freaked out about that than a little rust on a fastener which are easily replaceable. If my chassis looked like that I'd strip it down, wire wheel the rust away and see just how deep the cancer goes, and then do a little naval jelly then POR15 it or something ridiculous like that.

My S13 lived it's whole life in the south, and I'm guessing has never been driven in snow(since it was registered in Miami every year before I bought it in Atlanta).

[a_ahmed]

Yeah well.. what can I do.. I plan to strip her naked and media blast, cut and weld, stitch weld and cage/strengthen down the whole chassis down the road but thats $$$. The car definetely won't be winter driven ever and hasn't been since I've owned it in 3 years...

This is not a full time thing for me and I'm young, married, acting as if it either is a full time thing or I'm filthy rich which I quite am not lol, quite the opposite. I already had people tell me "oh man you must be rich" while working on the car.. yea right...Just plans down the road...

Titanium bolts and fasteners/etc... ey?... that's a tempting thought... I do remember some guy doing that when I was in high school on some supra or something... a looong time ago. Replaced every nut and bolt with titanium equivalents...

Lets say I go that way... my nuts and bolts knowledge is quite limited. It's here that I learned what acronyms like ID and OD are... so furthering my knowledge of this topic could be helpful in itself.

When defining a bolt or nut or washer or whatever... what is the terminology? This is also something I was hoping to understand.

For example the bolt itself has an OD right? But what about the top of the bolt? The type of top on the bolt or stud? What about it's material build/spec... grade? I was recently buying some mechanical bolts and was asked if its 8something grade or 10.9 for automotive, things of that nature. Can you enlighten me on all that? Then I guess length is common sense thing... but how about the pattern of the bolt.. meaning... the curvy stuff which winds in and out of a hole or on which the nut winds down on?

Sounds lame but I honestly don't know the terminology jut as I didn't know what OD and ID stood for not too long ago (inner and outer diameter).

Since if I were to do such a thing.. I'd also want to know what the stock stuff really is rated at, the specs and sizings/lengths/diameters/patterns/whatever...

I'm not an educated engineer, this is a hobby but I do have a technical mindset, I just need the info and knowledge to learn...



If one can describe them in diagram form, what each part of a bolt is called for instance.. the squigly part.. the head part... all these little things, I'm trying to google right now as much as I can on it...

It's too much information at once all I see is lots of images, information, types and it's overwhelming to begin with...





To me all these things are voodoo magic for now...

I love mechanical stuff.. and if I were to go back to school I'd definetely do mechanical engineering...

[a_ahmed]

http://www.4x4wire.com/tech/screws/

Found this site, it shed some light on the topic...



but im still confused on threads and gauging thread sizes...

Knowledge being brought down to the common man hehe

If anyone has more common man articles I would appreciate it...

[Def]

Short of it is SAE sizes are say 1/4" - 28 (which is a UNF - unified national fine I believe thread).

1/4" is the outer diameter of the bolt, 28 is the number of threads per inch. Higher number means a finer/closer together thread pitch.

Metric - 6mm x 1mm

6 mm is the diameter, and 1 mm is the distance between threads. The higher this number is the coarser it is.

All the fasteners on your Nissan stock are metric. The easiest place to get replacements is the dealer for 90% of the stuff since you'd be buying in small quantities. Most bolts/nuts are sold in large qtys unless you're paying out the ass for them, in which case you might as well go for the dealer stuff and know it'll work. There are counterfeit bolts out there(head/class marking being complete BS - mostly made in China and India).

[floodo1]

hate to thread crap, but i have something legit to say

firstly- dood replace some of the rusted parts that you can replace, or at least clean them up. I mean brackets like your steering rack bracket (the one that goes over the bushing) should just be replaced. looks like its solid rust on the drivers side.
Worry about this first. by new pieces and buy new bolts at the dealership at the same time.

like d00d said, your easiest route is going to be just buying new parts at the dealership. if you sweet talk one of the parts guys you might be able to get some of them for free. I know that usually when I need 1 or 2 bolts the guys direct me to a giant jar thats just filled with random bolts. Saves on waiting for them to get the parts on order.

Really dealer prices arent bad for MOST small parts for 240's. I've bought probably more than my fair share of stuff and its only really some things that have been stupid, like the trunk floor cardboard piece (the false floor). Cant remember how much it was, something like 150 or 200.....like i'll find my own cardboard and make one myself for that price.

But bolts probably wont be like this. at least none of the bolts ive ever paid for have been like this. its really not an issue either because I dont know of any bolts that arent strong enough from the factory.

But hey, if you want to compile a list of alternatives, let me know when you're done !!

[jmauld]

a_ahmed, whenever you replace a part (like that new steering rack) you should have a drill with a wire brush handy. Knock the rust away from any convenient parts while you're already under the car and then spray with some kind of paint/primer. I don't think it really matters what you use, as long as you knock the existing rust away and then cover the bare metal. As many parts that you have replaced you would already have most of the car repainted by now!

[Def]

Yea, a wire brush to get the big stuff off, then smearing it with naval jelly and letting it sit. Then some more wire brushing for the little bits it didn't get. Then paint.

I'm really into Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy - gloss black and stainless steel colors - for touch ups on stuff right now. It's a single stage epoxy in a spray can - pretty durable and like $4.50 a can.

[a_ahmed]

hmm i wish i had my own shop, im doing this at my friend's shop... if i had my own garage and a hoist id spend my nights working on the car lol... thanks for the encouragement though

I do need to compile a list of these thingamajigs to replace though... like for example the rack mounts that go over the bushings, no idea where id get that new for instance... (sexy aluminum bushings underneath if u can notice past the rust hahaha.. make a huge difference in steering feel last year by the way). The bolts... alright i guess dealership could be a good enough source (FSM should have part numbers?... i dun remember if FSM has part numbers..)

Then I rather have an alternate list. For example when I was doing auto>manual conversion before (as my car used to be manual), I had to get bellhousing bolts, starter bolts, etc... dealership was asking like couple of weeks wait, so instead i went to a brafasco store and got the bolts through them. Cost me about 17 bux canadian though... bunch of different 10.9 metric bolts and grade 8 sae bolts for the starter they were like 95mm or something...

I was hoping to do something of that sort actually and if possible to get something that won't rust. My understanding however is that the stainless steel bolts are sub grade 5 (SAE-wise) or something... either way I would need metric 10.9s then... And the zinc plated bolts were also sub grade 8 or something... I want something that'll last and have some benefit. I mean the rusted bolts work just look ugly... although the nuts and well even the bolt heads at times are a headache.. being hard headed (haha pun intended) to remove... and worse case scenario lost their integrity and might snap yikes...

Things like that... and hey it would be pretty baller if i could find exact alternates titanium-wise hehe... I'm sure that would save a good hefty pounds here and there... the stock camber arm bolts with weights for instance were quite damn heavy... and rusted to boot.

[pedroramosjr]

This thread will help with your effort to clean and prevent corrosion. http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=283826

I live on the coast and have problems with corrosion. It is manageable as long as I periodically clean and spray the underbody, wheelwells and suspension with a corrosion inhibitor. I've also painted most of my suspension with por15 or an appliance epoxy. I would suggest CRC Marine Heavy Duty Corrosion Inhibitor or BOESHIELD T-9 for preventing corrosion. They both leave a waxy film once dried and are safe for use on rubber and plastic.

[a_ahmed]

Oh yes I've seen that guy's project... he's the man. Those euro/uk/dutch/german guys with s chassis cars are awesome... they also track their cars the right way and do autobahn runs hehe.. awesomeness. It's there that I heard of the oxygel thingamajig or whatever its called... it eats away rust very well makes it brand new metal. That's one possibility in itself just restoring the original bolts yeah... as opposed to buying new ones..

[Longfellow]

The euro spec S14's have diff coolers/pumps from factory?

[Epstein]

Yes. Pretty sure.

[Longfellow]

Thats pretty nifty. I might looking into copying that if I ever get a LSD worth all that work.