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Finally back on track restoring my 69 after an extended stop-work that included a divorce, three moves, and remarriage. I have all the original bolts, nuts, clips, and hardware bagged and labeled, but a lot if that stuff is crusty and nasty. What are your favorite sources for correct hardware? I HATE seeing hardware store bolts under a nice classic.
In the past I have cleaned and or blasted bolts, but what became clear very quickly is that blasting removes the plating and the bolts look like crap. Even the ones I didn't blast but cleaned, have lost much of the plating. They just don't fly with a restoration. Yes, there are ways to chemically clean and re-plate, but that's quite time/labor/cost intensive. There's good companies out there that have brand new correct fasteners and hardware. Paragon has always been good in the past, but it's probably been 15 years since I last bought restoration hardware. Just wondering if there's any new quality vendors.
In the past I have cleaned and or blasted bolts, but what became clear very quickly is that blasting removes the plating and the bolts look like crap. Even the ones I didn't blast but cleaned, have lost much of the plating. They just don't fly with a restoration. Yes, there are ways to chemically clean and re-plate, but that's quite time/labor/cost intensive. There's good companies out there that have brand new correct fasteners and hardware. Paragon has always been good in the past, but it's probably been 15 years since I last bought restoration hardware. Just wondering if there's any new quality vendors.
100% with that statement, unless someone is going for that NCRS "judging" nut and bolt it's just not worth the labor to re-use rusted hardware. I have tried it all from DIY to out sourcing and at the end of the day I found it cheaper to just replace.
A complete rolling chassis with all new rubber, steel lines and hardware to include fuel tank and tires will run about $3K and look factory fresh.
Hi,
It really depends on what you want the finished chassis/driveline to look like and how you'll use/store the car that will help you determine what to do with the fasteners.
I think that Paragon probably has the largest assortment of various NEW fasteners that are the most similar to the original fasteners.
Richard Fortier, the founder of Paragon, has a LARGE assortment of original fasteners that he sells.
After prepping the original bolts it's fairly straight forward to plate them again at home. Fasteners were typically natural, zinc, phosphate, and black oxide.
The zinc plating is the most involved but the phosphates and black oxide are pretty simple.
More than a few fasteners were left 'natural' which means they'll rust fairly quickly. Something like Prelube 6 or a coat of matte clear can be used on those.
Regards,
Alan
Here's an example of original fasteners used on the front suspension.
There's zinc, zinc w/ dichromate wash, manganese phosphate, black oxide and natural
Here's some of the fasteners and hardware from the rear suspension.
Been doing this a lot of years and never heard of them. I checked out their web site and looked for the 1965 Corvette Instrument Cluster & Glove Bow Frame Mounting Nuts (U-Nut GM 3831934). What they have is a pretty close to correct U-Nut so that is a big plus.
Couple three years ago I was finishing up the frame off restoration on my 65 and could not locate the Instrument Cluster U-Nuts so I ordered some from a well known vendor only to get BS non-correct non-workable trash. Found a guy who had 5 NOS U-Nuts and I paid $13.20 EA for those. The above link has them for $2.00 EA
I spent a butt load of money during the restoration and other than the cost of paint being Red *** #1 and these U-Nuts at $13.20 EA were Red *** #2. Funny I didn't blink an eye dropping $2K for dash pads and door panels.
BTW when this car was complete I found those missing 5 U-Nuts.
I have had pretty good luck with Evaporust for cleaning. Just soak over night...for missing bolts I have had luck with Paragon as others have mentioned, plus I found a source (but lost the link now) to a Vette fastener specialist. May have been corvettefasteners.com, also as noted above.
Finally back on track restoring my 69 after an extended stop-work that included a divorce, three moves, and remarriage. I have all the original bolts, nuts, clips, and hardware bagged and labeled, but a lot if that stuff is crusty and nasty. What are your favorite sources for correct hardware? I HATE seeing hardware store bolts under a nice classic.
I carry a ton of screws and bolts... Most are original and some are as close as we can get... A typical example of this is the bolts that hold the door window channels in place. The original bolt was a SEMS washer bolt but this bolt is not available anywhere. We have a replacement locking style bolt that will work perfectly and while it's not 100 percent original it works...
The items in this picture were all restored in-house were the originals from the 63 swc we restored a few years ago.
Willcox
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; 03-06-2018 at 08:58 AM.
If you have bolts that were originally black phos or oxide plated, it is pretty easy to sand blast them and replate them.
If the bolts were originally zinc or cad plated, soak them in evaporust and then hit them with a wire wheel. Sometimes they need to be replated, but sometimes you can just shine them up.
As far as buying fasteners, if you are doing a midyear, Long Island Corvettes and Paragon have pretty good replacements. But a lot of the head markings are not correct for C3's. You also have to be careful of finishes. A lot of Paragon's finishes are not original. A lot of parts are plated that were originally natural. You can use some muratic acid for 10 or 15 minutes to remove the plating.
I've been successful at finding some fasteners at AMK products as well. They have a PDF catalog which also lists original GM part numbers for fasteners that cross to their stock. I would take a number for a fastener from the AIM and search their catalog. If I got a hit, I could compare their fastener picture to the original if I had one and decide if what they had was good enough. Generally I found that when they listed one of their fasteners as being a certain GM part number, it was very close, if not exactly, like the original. I've bought some fasteners from the corvette suppliers. Sometimes those come in AMK packaging, so I'm thinking that a lot of the suppliers get at least some of their fasteners from AMK.
You will never do any better than reusing the original fasteners that came on the vehicle. I've not tried Evapo-rust, but after seeing the post above, I will use it in the future. It appears to remove the rust...but not whatever plating is left. That is a real plus.
Since I don't have my car "judged", I always coat 'bare' fasteners with something: either clear lacquer (on exposed surfaces) or the correct metal-colored paint. No sense in having them rust again.....
You will never do any better than reusing the original fasteners that came on the vehicle. I've not tried Evapo-rust, but after seeing the post above, I will use it in the future. It appears to remove the rust...but not whatever plating is left. That is a real plus.
Since I don't have my car "judged", I always coat 'bare' fasteners with something: either clear lacquer (on exposed surfaces) or the correct metal-colored paint. No sense in having them rust again.....
Sorry these are not Vette photos but to illustrate better how Evaporust takes off rust and does not disturb plating I will throw in a couple of pics of a bike I restored last year. This is the SAME sprocket in both photos and it was not replated, cleaned with Evaporust only. And I promise I am not one of their stock holders, nor do I work for them...
I know what you may think, but ACE Hardware has a huge selection of grade 5 and grade 8 fasteners that are perfect for replacing OEM hardware.
They also sell stainless and many coated fasteners that are direct replacement for OEM.
I've also used Fastenal products when looking for specialty fasteners.
I will clean and reuse many OEM fasteners on my resto/mod or go through forum vendors like Wilcox when I need a replacement.
Hmmm. Evaporust might well be worth a try. I do still have many of the original bolts, but certainly not all. I'll see if I can save some of the originals.
03-05-2018, 09:53 AM
Best source for restoration bolts, nuts, hardware
100% with that statement, unless someone is going for that NCRS "judging" nut and bolt it's just not worth the labor to re-use rusted hardware. I have tried it all from DIY to out sourcing and at the end of the day I found it cheaper to just replace.
