• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

British fasteners

Share this page

K

Ken G

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
This is not exactly tools, but it seems the least inappropriate category.

I am in need of sources of BSF nuts and bolts in the US. I know of British Tools and Fasteners, recently moved from LA to NY, and have no complaint about their service. However, there must be other sources. Half an hour of surfing the web found a few in Britain (notably Namrick) but no others in the US. Can people makes suggestions, preferably for places convenient to San Francisco.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)
 
I'll do a little homework for you.......I was in industrial supply for a while, and I know that we were able to get hold of BSF fasteners, but where I don't remember. I'll make a phone call in the morning, see if I can scare up a name and a phone number for you.
 
Just for others' information, I discovered that O'Connor Classic Autos in Santa Clara (towards the south of San Francisco Bay) holds stocks of BSF fasteners because they are used on MG T-series cars. See www.oconnorclassics.com.
 
Ken;

Try looking under fasteners in the Yellow pages and start calling the different suppliers. One of them is bound the carry BSF. I've never had a problem finding BSF fasteners in the different Cities I've lived in; from 350,000 to 70,000 pop.

Mark
 
Mark Jones,

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work, at least a year or two ago. There is a marvellous firm specializing in fasteners in San Francisco, but they don't have BSF.

Basil,

I looked at British Metrics web-site and am not encouraged when a company mentions BSF and Whitworth on their home page, but then there is no sign anywhere else, in their catalog or on other pages of their website. Having found a US mail-order place with a catalog, and another over-the-counter place within 35 miles, I think I can manage for the present. However, of course if someone actually knows of a source in SF, I am interested!

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)
 
Thanks, Mark. I have sent an email to boltproducts asking whether they stock BSF nuts and bolts. We shall see.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)
 
Ken;

I was into Home Depot over the weekend, and lo and behold, they carry a selection of grade 5 fine thread fasteners.
 
As rather expected, no response from Boltproducts. My experience is that many firms simply don't bother to respond to emails if the answer is not positive; very rude, but commercially understandable.

Mark, I don't understand your Home Depot message. Fine thread in the US means UNF, with different pitch and different thread profile from British Standard Fine BSF. It so happens that one or two of the US UNC threads have the same pitch as corresponding British Standard Whitworth BSW, but coarse threads are only used in a few places (going into soft metals such as aluminum). British cars up to perhaps the early 1950s used British threads (of course), just as American ones used American threads. UNF then became common in Britain, I imagine with the influence of US-made stuff during the Second World War. I remember as a child (in England, in case it wasn't apparent!) getting surplus ex-military electronic equipment and having no idea what these weird threads were. Then fortunately most car manufacturers, including the British and American, went metric, so these confusions don't arise on cars from the 1970s on.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)
 
Ken;

I was getting my threads mixed up (Hey, I made a punny). I mistakenly thought BSF was the same as UNF. Both my lbcs have fine threads, not metric so the confusion does presist.

It gets even more fun at the end of the 70's because you could find Metric, UNF and BSW all on one car.
 
any news on this thread ? I used to buy from British tools when they were here in Calif. It was great, the guy knew what he was talking about and I got a bunch of really odd tools from him, but the best part was I would just call him and get bunches of bolts/nuts to replenish what I had used the last year. I am hoping the new British Tool is half as knowledgeable as the old was and at least half as friendly. I need to replenish my stock and place an order, so is there a better place now ?
 
The "old" British Tools was owned and run by a gent named Philip Brown who now lives somewhere in Missouri I believe. We still carry the same philosophy when it comes to ordering. There is a $10.00 minimum order, which means you could get 1 of each nut/bolt if you wanted too!
I am trying to do one better than Philip is some areas and that is to make special orders.
We can't guarantee to have every length in every single size (seeing as there are thousands and thousands of combinations) but we can get 'em!
Also, I have noticed, while looking for competition, that there are a few places that sell British stuff out there and although most of them are for British motorbikes (and therefore carry mostly BSC/CEI thread) there arent too many that have the selection that we do!
 
Well I guess I need to pick up the phone and test you guys then.
 
Back
Top