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Does anybody know of any suppliers that carry stainless bolts or bolt kits for the west coast mirrors? I will be painting my truck in a few months and have the mirrors removed already. It would be nice to replace those old rusty nuts and bolts.
I bought all the SS bolts for my mirrors at my local hardware store. I wanted to use chrome acorn nuts for the top and bottom of the actual mirror, but at $4 a nut I just went with SS Nylocks.
Out here in WA, we have Lowes Hardware stores, similar to Home Despot (maybe you do too). At my particular Lowes, they have open bins of hardware (as opposed to drawers full of the packaged stuff). I bought all of my hardware there, because of my ability to pick and choose wach bolt/nut individually.
I spent $40.00 on SS nuts/fasteners to rebuild my West Coast mirrors. And I have rebuilt two pairs of mirrors so far. It ain't cheap, but they will look nice into posterity.
My book is quite old but like "steel", stainless comes in varieties.
400 series is around a grade 3-5, 100,000 -120,000 psi UTS (which is most likely what we get served at the local hardware store), while 316 can range from 100-200K, depending on hardening, and way back in 1982, they were taking type 401 to over 300K psi! God and the pentagon only know what has been done by now!
Grade 8 is 150,000 psi UTS for reference. So, I guess what I'm saying you have no idea if the dog will hunt without a pedigree.
Regardless of the pedigree of the hardware, I doubt if you'll be reaching the UTS of ANY nut or bolt while mounting your mirrors. If you do, please post a description of your technique.
Thanks! I think i'll drop by Lowes or Home Depot and raid the bins. I was surprised that the mirrors came off without too much grief. The outside of the hardware was rusted to a crisp but the threads were shiny under the acorn nuts. I do have one threaded insert in the drivers door that is loose. I guess Lowes or Home Depot should have those too.