Thread: Followed Me Home, '33 Build

Tweet

Originally Posted by parkwood

Ryan, like Roger said all the bolts and nuts on the suspension are chrome, but on mine almost every other bolt and nut are Stainless Steel... i polished each and everyone. once polished they stay bright for life... makes it easy to clean.

I'll offer that the polished stainless steel bolts look good, but you want to be careful using them in high stress dynamic applications as their tensile strength characteristics are considerably different than carbon steel. In particular a SS bolt is subject to work hardening and failure in dynamic situations. A buddy used six big button head SS bolts polished to a high luster to hold his crank pulley on the front of the dampner, and after about six months of running found five of six broken and the pulley flopping around when he pulled off the road at a gathering. There's a reason OEM's don't use SS for things like wheel studs. Just be sure of your use and choose the material & tensile strength accordingly.

you got it Roger, nothing with stress on it.... don't want to have the shiny side upside one day...

Originally Posted by parkwood

you got it Roger, nothing with stress on it.... don't want to have the shiny side upside one day...

Isn't that the truth!!

Originally Posted by rspears

I'll offer that the polished stainless steel bolts look good, but you want to be careful using them in high stress dynamic applications as their tensile strength characteristics are considerably different than carbon steel. In particular a SS bolt is subject to work hardening and failure in dynamic situations.

Something we all need to be reminded about, thank you!