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Stainless hardware?...

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Personally, money can be better spent on the car. I wouldn't think twice about fastening my valve cover with stainless steel fasteners, but would never consider using them for engine mounts or other stress areas.
Stainless steel is conceived to be a strong metal because it is difficult to drill. It in fact stretches easily, not a good quality around stress.
With the use our cars typically see, a quality grade 5 or grade 8 fastener with a good zinc coating will endure the elements for several years before showing signs of corrosion.
The only SS I have on my TR6 is the hardware holding the air tunnel at the radiator. It came in the kit.
I tell my customers the same thing when they want to buy stainless from me for their personal cars and motorcycles.
If you are interested in buying quality plated domestic fasteners and don't know how to differentiate them from imports, the imports are usually very oily to protect them from the salt air while in shipment. All unplated fasteners are generally oily since they don't have a rust preventative coating.
 
Most SS is Grade 2-3 unless bought from Spruce or some high performance place.
And not aut Hi0 pro. Usually aircraft grade.
 
You can order stainless hardware from Aircraft Spruce or Bolt Depot on your own and save a ton of money. Use appropriate grade hardware for the application but there is ample opportunity under the hood to use stainless and really dress things up.
 
Here's a supplier that I used for some stainless components for my TR6. They have "value packs" already made up for wings, doors, etc.for the TR's Nice people and fast service. Just my oppinion.
https://www.groveco.co.uk/index1.html
 
From my experience with airplanes, SS hardware can sometimes be more trouble than it is worth. It is the "dis-similar metal" corrosion thing. SS on aluminum will promote corrosion.
Dave
 
fogdot said:
From my experience with airplanes, SS hardware can sometimes be more trouble than it is worth.
Click to expand...
:iagree: SS also has a tendency to gall even when only in contact with more SS. Be sure to use anti-seize.
 
I have their SS body kit. I have not installed it but it appears very thorough and good quality. It solved the issue I was wrestling with, whether to paint the hardware and how to restore my old hardware.

As for its grade, not sure but you could call them, they are very nice.
 
I got a stainless fender and under hood kit for my car. I used anti seize and I like the look of them. I like the looks of them, but it's a matter of choice. But I agree that I would never use them in a critical area under stress.
 
Thanks all for the comments and opinions... Probably should have been more specific with my plan. For the high stress areas, I would stick with good old grade 8 hardware... however for the all the low stress stuff I've been thinking of stainless just for a "clean" look. ...and anytime I take something apart, I always re-assemble with anti-seize.
 
I have an excel file downloaded from Buckeye Triumphs sometime ago with stainless fasteners for a TR6. I will email it to whoever asks. I tried to post it, but since it is an xls file, it wouldn't let me. It may still be up on the Buckeye site.
 
One technical point to make, when you put two different metals together, you can get galvanic corrosion. With stainless to carbon, the carbon corrodes. Stainless bolts with stainless nuts Gall as said before, so you can(should) only tighten them once. If tightened tight, they can be a real $$%%&&** to get off, then you toss them.
I like grade 8 or better all round. I hate bolts that break or strip when they have been on a long time and you need to get them off. Cheap exhaust bracket bolts are my true hate, as well as body mount bolts that snap. Anything that doesn't have a nut on the other side, tapped holes, nuts welded to frame, etc.
I hate having to drill out a broken bolt (never seem to get it quite centered).
Rob
 
Frankly, I don't understand the obsession with SS hardware. These cars were built without it and considering how most of them were abused, I have never heard of any failure of a critical fastener. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. As others have stated SS is not a panacea. It is not <span style="text-decoration: underline">commonly available </span>in the tensile strengths needed for automotive applications. I suggest that owners replace conventional steel hardware with like kind. Caveat: be sure to source your fasteners from reputable suppliers, not the big box stores via far off lands. You can even knock yourself out and jump up a grade or two, but you won't be achieving much(except lightening your purse).
 
If anybody has done a frame-off restoration, I can understand the desire to replace alot of the hardware with stainless. As <span style="font-weight: bold">angelfj</span> mentions, it probably isn't really worth it. I wouldn't use it in any critical situations, but the body fasteners sure are tempting. I opted for the standard body hardware, with their tapered, pointy ends, as assembly is much easier with those. I also used Never-Seize on all of those bolts. I believe that will work just as well as any stainless fasteners at a fraction of the cost.
 
I'm on my 3rd full restoration and have run into very few bolts that were siezed (knock on wood). When I put the car back together I use antisieze on almost all fasteners.

Frank has it right concerning dissimilar metals. And SS isn't shinny unless you buff it up. To me it just doesn't make sense.
 
I agree with Frank on the stainless issue, to an extent.

I'm doing a frame off on a TR4 that has already had one frame off performned on it. The first frame off took place over a period of about 4 years. The PO used Moss motors almost exclusively for all his parts, including frame mounting kits, fender mounting kits, etc.

During the teardown, I was amazed at how much the hardware he used had already corroded and rusted. This was not a daily driver and has logged only about 3,000 miles since the restoration was completed about 3 years ago. The car was kept under a car cover inside a garage in northern California, not in a Borneo rain forest.

I live in south Louisiana, a climate so thick with humidity that wood rusts. Since Triumph is no longer in business and their hardware is no longer available, my only alternative is to use after market stuff. This has been bugging the crap out of me as I can only imagine what the nuts, bolts and fender clips would have looked like had my car been stored down here for the last few years.

I'm not saying stainless steel is the answer because frankly, I don't know. I do know this, anything would be better than some of the junk being sold now as replacement hardware for British cars. I'll most likely use a combination of materials. I would hate all my restoration efforts to be ruined by shoddy fsstners.
 
Tab: Here's a note to consider. While restoring the 3A, we have tried to restore as many of the original components and fasteners as possible. However, at times this is just not possible and we have had to use reproductions and new hardware. This has presented a problem. Much of the stuff being manufactured today has a yellow-ish finish. The early TR's used only clear cadmium , black oxide or paint. So if we have a part in a conspicuous place we have had to remove the yellow finish. Well, we thought this would be a problem. We were wrong. It appears that these parts are NOT necessarily plated, but probably chemically <span style="font-weight: bold">COATED</span>. This coating must be only a few atoms thich. A brass wire brush wheel takes it right off. Then off to the plater @ $40 per gallon bucket for clear cad and Bob's your uncle. We do not go through this process for quality steel fasteners. Companies like Fastenal, WW Grainger, McMaster Carr, etc have good stuff available - use caution when selecting and don't order according to lowest price. That would be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

fja
 
Muchos gracias Frank!

I need all the help I can get with locating suppliers of quality parts, especially hardware at this point. The one thing that really bothered me was the fact that every one of the fender clips installed was already in an advanced stage of rust, or on it's way. Do you know of anyone that may sell these type of clips in a rust proof material?

I'm by no means a restoration professional, but as an amateur, I'd still hate to go through all the hours and bucks required to do a decent restoration only to have it ruined in a few years by cheap fasteners.

I'd like to stay fairly close to original, but I'm not shooting for a concours type all original restoration. Bolt finish is not terribly important for me, provided they don't corrode or break in two.

I've decided not to try and paint the car all by my lonesome. A wise decision on my part as patience is definitely not one of my virtues. I've been having an incredibly hard time finding a first class, much less competent painter down here. At this point, I've pretty much decided on sending the car to someone...somewhere...at some point to do the paint and body work. I've called a couple of out of town shops only to be told that they have a 2 to 3 year waiting list.

For now, I've got the tub connected to my home made rotisserie, which still needs a little modification, and it will be soda blasted in the next couple of weeks. I do intend on spraying an epoxy primer on it until it can get to someone to paint.

If you have any suggestions with regard to my paint/restoration problems, please email me at
taberconstruction@mac.com
 
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