meek

Having finally acquired a home with a garage and attempting as much vehicle maintenance at possible, I realise that a general kit composed of the most common fasteners (grade 8 nuts & bolts, self tapping screws etc.) would be really useful. Does anyone in the UK/USA supply such kits?

If not, what components should I be looking for and where can I get them? I am sure this would be a useful list to build for all DIY-ing Rennlisters. Porsche prices are just silly and everytime I attempt any kind of work on the 964 I find some rusted/snapped/missing fastener that needs resplacement that I then have to go in search of. Same goes for my Forester; today being a case in point when the battery terminal bolt snapped as I prepared to change the spark plugs.

Anyone want to start the list?

tbennett017

Good question... I don't have an answer exactly, but one guiding question. Do you think they all need to be Grade 8? Is that necessary in all cases?

Goughary

+1. But I wouldnt know where to start.

Robert Budd sells the screws for the seats. He's probably making a fortune (in relative terms) but though it would have been cheeper for me to source myself, I decided that paying the extra dollar to add to his fortune was the best way to go....

So yes - if someone wants to pre-pack kits for exhaust hardware, the screws that hold on the front plastic under the car (that lose their heads from scraping the ground) and on and on - if the quality is right, ie hard steel when necessary, light weight when necessary, corrosion resistent when necessary, then I am a customer for sure...

Should be pretty simple for anyone that wants to spend the time to get the specs and put together packages to be dropped shipped from mcmaster-carr or somewhere of that nature...

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

In most cases, yes. Certainly body and interior hardware doesn't always need to to be graded, however chassis, brakes, and powertrain fasteners should be. Some are 12.9, too.

Unless you buy a selection on an al la carte basis, most good quality collections will be 8.8 or better.

One thing,....SAE Grade 8 applies to non-metric hardware; 8.8, 10.8, & 12.9 applies to metric stuff.

bgiere

Steve, any advice on places to buy hardware kits? I hesitate to buy them from internet vendors but surely there is someone reputable selling metric hardware online?

meek

That is useful to know. I was wondering why the UK suppliers show 8.8 as a grade.

I don't suppose that PET can somehow throw up a list of total types of fasteners used in a 964? I know many of the same bolt, screw etc. can be found throughout different parts of the car.

Makmov

I have looked and looked and there is just no good substitute to the factory hardware, particularly in the States and still use some arcaic measuring system that makes little sense. (1 of only 3 countries) Who would ever thought the USA would have anything in comon with Liberia, and Burma.

JasonAndreas

One of the major differences between the fasteners that you buy from hardware stores, internet vendors, etc. and the one's that you (or use to) get from Porsche is the thickness of the coating. The aftermarket (and your local hardware store sourced) fasteners are absolute crap! Does it justify the difference in cost? Probably not when you can buy a box of 8mm all-metal locking nuts and bolts for the exhaust that you can snap off and replace any time you need to, for the same price as a single bolt from Porsche. But anything suspension or engine-internal (or seat) related I would spend the extra money and buy directly from Porsche. Not all 8.8 fasteners are created equal!


Its certainly worth buying 6 & 8mm all-metal and regular hexagon nuts and washers. And I've used MetricMCC and Spaenaur. I wouldn't buy bolts or studs in bulk just because Porsche used a different length for every hole.

Makmov

Yeah metric hardware uses different identifiers, and it's the dashes or lines that are more important than the # on metric hardware, which a lot of it has no number just dashes.

Makmov

Porsche also uses a fair amount of stainless fasteners as well.

VR6-er

When I changed the fasteners on my battery strap I thought Porsche quality was real bad. I have some old VW Corrado bolts from a car I parted out and there were in a different league to the stuff Porsche use. In the end I just used stainless as they were on the shelf too.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Jason is spot-on; there is quite a difference in quality between Factory stuff and garden-variety hardware. Both finish, metallurgy and coatings are better, plus Porsche uses a lot of proprietary length fasteners which the only source is a dealer.

That said,....we do use German-made metric hardware which is pretty good when the same grades are compared. Non-standard length grip & threaded bolts must come from the dealer in most cases.

Do not compare some of the current green-coated Porsche hardware with the older plated stuff as the quality isn't the same. Stainless steel should NEVER be used in any high-stress applications where an 8.8, 10.8, or 12.9 bolt is specified.

alexjc4

The production engineering on cars is such that most of the fastenings are specific for the application in some way, mostly just in length but sometime also in other ways.

I've found even an extensive generic selection box wouldn't have exactly what you need for many jobs on most cars. So usually porsche are the best source for the correct fit and not massively expensive. It may seem daft to spend £2 on a bolt but that is pretty much what good "unusual" bolt cost and they aren't actually marking it up that stupidly.

I've got a box of loads of different fasteners from different cars over the years and surprisingly few are reusable from one to another - I've got ten variants of an M8 cap head in my box but never quite the one I need. My Nissan seems to use metric fine thread for most of the chunky stuff (your Forester may be similar), which off the shelf fastener selections wouldn't have.

That said, its nice to have shiny things in the toolbox and if you don't mind a non-exact replacement that may do the job just as well but maybe doesn't look quite right, an assorted box might be handy.

I buy all sorts of odds and sods for car projects from these guys, and they do assorted fasteners boxes which look ok value:
http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.e...fixingkits.php

Namrik are old school (I've been recommended to them many times) and they do assorted sets albeit of slightly vague contents.
http://www.namrick.co.uk/

The high tensile bolts in those kits will be 8.8 and the cap heads will be 12.9. As will all but the cheapest junk.

As has been said stainless is only good for non load bearing stuff as its half the strength of regular steel.

I prefer passivated, either blacked or yellow, rather than zinc plated (often labelled as BZP), just for aesthetics. I think good plated stuff would outlast the other too but it stands out like a sore thumb, bad plated starts to rust around the edges and looks horrid.

Babalouie

I generally get my nuts and bolts in bulk from an industrial fastener shop, so I'll walk in and ask for 20 M8 x 35, 20 M6 x 25 etc, so I've got a drawer full of nuts, washers and bolts. For low-stress fasteners like brackets etc I get stainless allen bolts and washers, which look great polished. I find that when you buy large amounts, it's not very expensive, and it's cheaper than buying the little packets of high tensile bolts from the hardware store.

Over here in Australia we have a chain of stores called Coventry Fasteners that I use. For steel bolts, I find that usually the best they have is grade 8.8, so for any application where the original bolt was better than that, I reuse the original bolt and replate it if necessary. As Alex said, you can get steel allen/cap head bolts, which will be 12.9, but I only seem to be able to find them in that matt black finish that goes rusty after a while.

I would agree that the standard of plating for aftermarket fasteners isn't as good as oem (if you polish them, the gold colour polishes off very easily), but I just like the look of nice shiny bolts when I'm done working on something

alexjc4

That's the sort of outlet that has all but disappeared in the UK, along with our manufacturing industries I guess, especially in the South East.

Lol, I prefer bolts that slowly turn brown at roughly the same rate as the rest of the car.