Restoration Guys.....what do you do with nuts/bolts?

[w30bob]

Hi Guys,

It seems with every project I have.........and I've got way too many going on now..........I always get held up with what to do with original hardware. Blasting and painting never works, the paint comes off as soon as you wrench on it.....then it rusts. Sending stuff out for plating takes time and stuff gets lost......and it's expensive. I've got an Eastwood Black Oxide kit somewhere, but BO isn't very durable, and I looked briefly at the Caswell plating stuff........but what do you guys do in regards to restoring hardware? I mostly blast and coat with Fluid Film, which is basically wax that keeps the bare steel rust free for the short time I keep telling myself it will take me to figure out what to do long term. You can guess how that's working out so far. I need to pick a course of action, buy the stuff and get going. Interested to hear what not to do as well as what works for you guys to get your old hardware looking new again.

thanks,
bob

[Bob McCarty]

If you've seen the picture of the Cubs coming down the spray line, almost everything was painted red. You can either leave bolt heads unpainted, or touch them up after assembly.

[HiltzMachineWorks]

I'm not a "restorer" because I still use mine for work, but I do swap out anything I can with stainless hardware and then paint it red. As Bob McCarty said, everything from the factory was basically just sprayed red. I've seen Cubs with all stainless hardware on the gas tank, radiator screen etc, that wasn't painted and I didn't think it looked right. Too "bling bling" looking for a tractor haha

[Stanton]

I will wire wheel every nut and bolt, prime and paint. Touch up with an artist’s brush after reassembly.

[Drfting1]

I put new whenever I can. The old ones, if they are worn in anyway, I toss them, if good shape, I wire wheel them, oil them up and toss them in a can I have for cub spare small parts

[Slim140]

If the bolts/nuts are good I clean them with a wire brush on a bench grinder then wash them in lacquer thinner and brush them with an acid brush to degrease them, throw all the lock washers away paint them with everything else and assemble tractor with new lock washers then touch them up with a small brush after assembly.

[w30bob]

Hi Guys,

Good point about most of these bolts being painted.......between the sandblast cabinet at work and my house I forgot that. I was told the front rims were painted off the tractor, so I'll have to figure out what to do with the front rim bolts.......but other than those I guess there's not many other bolts to plate. Thanks for bearing with me.

regards,
bob