37 - Fastener Fascination

Once I discovered that I had a fastener problem -- in that some of them were not original to this motor, and others were rusty and beyond repair -- I did some thinking. 

I have two generations of problems to solve. First, many of the bolts, nuts, and other assorted parts that I have are 65+ years old and original to Duffy. When I started this project, I honestly didn't care much about them. I'm not a "patina" guy and I don't get off on things that just look old and worn. Accordingly, I expected to replace most of the hardware on the truck. For example, I have a box of stainless steel fittings from YRM for the body that I ordered a long time ago, knowing I'd need replacements. Why I ordered body fixings back in the early days of this project, I have no idea. 

Ultimately however I didn't want to just replace everything on the truck. Particularly when it came to the engine. The hardware I have for the 200tdi is much newer, from the late 1980s I suspect, so it should be salvageable. I had bags like this:

Bolts that I'd taken out during disassembly, kept together by application, and labelled. 

Little bags of oily metal.

Well, let's take a look at the condition of some of these bolts and other miscellaneous parts, shall we? It'd be good to know which ones I can save & keep, and which ones I'll have to buy fairly expensive replacements for. 

As ever, this process starts with a yogurt container full of degreaser and a wire brush:

 Mine's getting so well-used now that it has only a few scraggly wires left, kind of like an old guy with a comb-over. 

Tackling this part of the engine rebuild is daunting. It's a process, it really is. There are dozens of fasteners on a 200tdi. The ladder frame alone probably has a dozen bolts. Each one has to be inspected, degreased, and scrubbed by hand. The small parts are all in varying condition. All of them are oily in one form or another: 

Some will come out of the yogurt container with silicone still stuck to them:

All of them will have some kind of oily mung caked into the threads: 

And many of them will have rusted bolt heads, depending on where they were used in the engine:

Time to give them a bath, I suppose, and see how much of this crap we can disappear:

What an ultrasonic cleaner does is loosen deposits. It both heats the water in the bath and uses vibration to deal with any dirt and oil stuck on your parts. It is not a terribly effective system for this application. For one thing, the deposits on something like a bolt are usually pretty deep in the threads. Those are hard to get to. For another, depending on the degreaser you use -- which for me is a combo of a Zep citrus degreaser and Dawn dish detergent -- it's not terribly 'strong.' There aren't any petrochemicals in here doing any work. It's just an electronic dish scrubber, really. 

But, it DOES work:

Once you run something through the ultrasonic you can wipe it down and it ends up being pretty clean. It'll do a decent job of the bolt heads, flanges, and shank; where it needs help is in the threads. 

As you can see, I was left with some mostly-clean bolts with a mottled finish. I'm guessing that's probably from the factory coating which is stained, failing, or failed on certain bolts. 

Previously, as I'd done on the axles, my method was to clean up the bolts a little bit and hit 'em with some primer, then a topcoat. I was very unsatisfied with this result. While POR-15 and Eastwood Evapo-Rust are both great products, I think they have a time and a place for their application. For something like a fastener, which is expected to stand up to torque as it's installed, paint is not my favourite choice. I really noticed this in the drive flanges of the Salisbury axle: I was able to tighten the flange bolts, but 1) they looked kinda ugly to me with the paint on them; and 2) the parts scratched up like crazy the second I put a wheel anywhere near them. This problem is further complicated with the state of the hardware I was looking at. 

Paint doesn't stick to oil. 

Painting over rusted bolt-heads will cause the coating to fail. 

Getting a good paint job done on small parts is difficult, expensive, and is a bit of an art that I've yet to master. 

Some parts, like this cover plate: 

... are gonna provide a challenge. It probably could be reliably POR-15'ed and installed back in the engine without anyone being the wiser. But, I wonder if there's a better way.

Factory bolts are zinc finished, and it's a popular choice I've seen from the high-dollar restorers. Could that be replicated on a budget?