Sunday, September 6, 2009

Nuts and Bolts

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Through the winter months I cleaned up all the nuts and bolts that came with the car using a wire brush on a bench grinder and a small sand blaster. I organized all the hardware into trays. I had originally thought I would used the majority of these bolts again during the rebuild, most seem to be in good shape. The Bolts on a MGA are Unified Thread Standard:  UNF (fine)  UNC (coarse). Most of the bolts are fine thread count. Three sizes make up the majority 1/4", 5/16" & 3/8".  Luckily none of the bolt heads are Whitworth, and I don't have to purchase another set of wenches and sockets. SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) threads are by far more popular today, which makes UNF bolts more expensive.

I have discovered that SAE fine and UNF threads, although slightly different can be interchanged with one another. So in the interest of  longivity I've decided to go with new bolts when ever possible and I've found a local nut and bolts store that has a good selection of various sizes.

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