Nuts & bolts preservation

[Ed]

While taking apart my rear bumper I noticed most of the bolts were rusted pretty bad. Now the bumper is going to the platers to get a new finish. But what do I do with the bolts? If I plate those will I have to chase the threads? Or should I try and find new bolts that have some kind of plating already on them?

[Daniel]

Buy new bolts and have them plated.That way the chrome will match.About your concern about the new ones rusting ,remember they are 30+ years old.Add to that I doubt your redone Z will be exposed to anywhere near the weather that it has been in the last 30.

[2ManyZs]

You might try scouring the parts stores and hardware stores for stainless steel bumper bolts... That way you'll never have to worry about them rusting and you can polish them to look nearly as good as chrome.

As far as the old ones go, if they are that rusty, trying to clean them up to be replated will more than likely ruin the threads on them anyways...

[Victor Laury]

I'll comment on this, because I just went on a quest for chrome carriage bolts.

I wanted 1/4 and 5/16 chrome carriage bolts to replace the bolts that hold the end pieces of the rear bumper on and four 5/16 bolts to fill the holes from the overriders. You'd think that in a city like Los Angeles, this would not be hard to find. I went from Hardware store to another, Auto part stores, hot rod shops, even a Harley shop - no avail. I finally found them in the largest independent hardware store in town. For those in my area, It was Virgil's Hardware in Glendale.

[zachb55]

Something i was considering was plating all of the bolts/nuts/small metal parts of my car to make them look better because right now they arent exactly beatiful. The best option i came up with was Zinc plating them, youd have to find a shop that does that sort of thing, not sure that its the prettyist thing but im sure itll keep rust out forever.

-Zach

[2ManyZs]

Actually I think you might find the stock bolts are zinc plated.

The only way to make sure they never rust is to go stainless....

[Ed]

Is it zinc or zinc chromate? Because zinc is kind of dull silver looking in color right? And most of the new bolts look kind of goldish/copperish. ???

Should I have the old rusted nuts & bolts plated? Or would it be better to just buy new ones. The ones that are really bad are the nuts that hold the rubber strip to the bumper.

[Gav240z]

I had trouble finding replacement bolts on my Z many of times.

[GunnerRob]

Ed,

I've attached a link to a page from McMaster-Carr that caries 18-8 and 316 stainless steel carriage bolts in the sizes Victor mentioned.

Hope this helps!

Here's their web site.

http://www.mcmaster.com/