JIS 316 Stainless and Plated Hardware

[davework]

Hi all, I am new here, but interested in the group's feedback on whether our new offerings may be valuable to the Z community.

I've been offering bolt kits to the Toyota crowd for about 6 years.  We recently expanded our manufacturing to include A4 (316) stainless JIS sized hardware, as well as customizing our carbon steel yellow zinc and gold cadmium plated hardware.

We lab test everything here in Colorado to confirm everything is class 10.9 (carbon steel) and class 70 (stainless) strength.

I've poked around a little on the Z forums and did locate references to JIS hardware kits, and I don't see any offerings in A4 (316) stainless.

One of the main reasons we started this was to provide true JIS sized hardware, this means 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm wrench sizes on hex bolts and nuts.  Do your Zs use these small JIS wrench sizes?  If so, I am hoping there could be some nice crossover to what we've developed.

Please take a look at the website for more details: https://www.overlandmetric.com/collections/bulk-nuts-bolts-screws

Any feedback welcome!  Thanks all.

[wheee!]

Put together a full kit for the 280 in stainless, and I would be interested. Kits typically run between $200-$400 depending on quality and quantity...

[wheee!]

Put together a full kit for the 280 in stainless, and I would be interested. Kits typically run between $200-$400 depending on quality and quantity...

[RyanT67]

I'd be interested in a zinc or cadmium plated kit, and imagine many others would be too.  Stainless is nice and all, but doesn't it interact with some other metals in an undesirable way, and have less tensile strength than regular steel?

[Namerow]

16 hours ago, davework said:

Any feedback welcome!  

The cross-reference table (Toyota PN vs. fastener spec) in your 'Research' page is a nice feature.  If you move into Nissan country with your offerings, I'm sure that owners would enjoy a similar table for our cars.

I'm curious about how/why you're able to offer cad plating (vs. yellow zinc plating).  I thought that real cad plating had been banned just about everywhere because of environmental risks to groundwater. 

There's one fastener style that you (and other suppliers) are not offering.  That is the hex-head bolt style that features a cross-type (aka Phillips) screwdriver indent in the head.  This was a visually special feature of many of the Z's fasteners and something that some of us would like to preserve during our restorations.  If you can find a source for these (typically M6 and M8, IIRC), you may enjoy some buyer traffic that would otherwise pass you by.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Namerow

[jonathanrussell]

I would be very interested in both stainless and yellow zinc kits that use JIS size heads.

[Mike W]

To Namerow's question on the fastener style with the hex head and philips indent, I have found those from one supplier called Metric Threaded Products.  They are in yellow zinc as well and come in various sizes and lengths and have JIS heads.

You can find them here:

http://www.metric-threaded.com/browse.aspx?category=JIS B1187&id=7021

 

The unfortunate part is that you will need to purchase a minimum of 100 pieces, or at least that was the requirement when I purchased a few select sizes some time ago.  They are very nice quality though and they also include the integrated lock washer and washer (SEMS).

Hope that helps out.

Mike.

[davework]

Great feedback, thanks.

Although no one directly said this, I am assuming that the hardware on your Nissans is in fact small head JIS standard (10/12/14mm wrench sizes for 6/8/10mm bolts)?

I looked through some of the current vendors offering kits and see some stainless offerings - are these small head JIS, or are they the more typical DIN standard metric heads?  My guess is DIN standard, but not sure.

To answer some of the other questions:

True Gold CAD plating is still available - it is not easy to find and expensive, but it's been a big hit for the many years I've been offering.

The phillips indented head SEMS hex bolts - good to know this is something you all would use. Metric Threaded is the best place I have found for these.  I actually went out of my way to manufacturer without the phillips since they are seldom used on the Toyotas, but would be interested in ordering some bulk quantities if possible.

Any suggestions as to how to know what the makeup of a good kit might be?  I'd like to put together a good full vehicle kit and possibly some stainless offerings for any specific items.  Any suggestions as to what those would be would be great.

Thanks again, 

[Namerow]

1 hour ago, davework said:

Any suggestions as to how to know what the makeup of a good kit might be?

Just research the kits that the big Z parts suppliers are already offering.  Obviously, you'll need to offer some kind of compelling advantage (price comes to mind), as these suppliers are already well known and (for the most part) well trusted by the Z owners community.  You might score yourself a niche if you're able to offer the Phillips-type hex-head bolts as a kit that lines up with the typical restorer's whole-vehicle needs.  Maybe one of our members is OCD enough to tally that up and give you the sizes and numbers required (they're not obvious from the parts fiche -- you need to know the car from first-hand experience... or a lot of really good, detail-level photos of a bone-stock Z).  Note that most of the Z's requirement for this type of special bolt was not of the captive-washer variety.  In addition, they were only used in low-load applications, so bolt grade isn't going to be a big deal.  It's all about the appearance of the bolt head.

[7tooZ]

ZcarDepot sells both total car kits for $269 on sale now at 22% off  Part #: 650-000 and other specific areas.

https://zcardepot.com/stainless-steel-bolt-kits/body-kits/stainless-steel-bolt-kit.html

 

[davework]

Great, thanks all for the replies, I've got some research to do to see if I can help out this community as well.  Maybe I just need to find a good 240z to diversify my obsession!  

I'll post back up when I learn more.  In the meantime, please keep the comments coming.

If anyone can confirm whether Zs used small head JIS, I can cross that off my questions.

[davework]

Looks like I found my answer:

 

But if someone could definitively confirm that M8 = 12mm wrench and M10 = 14mm wrench, that would be great.