Random hardware for reconditioning (1 Viewer)

[78fj40badger]

Does anyone know the best place to find the hardware to finish putting my truck together? I got it as a rollover basket case with most of the parts in a trailer. I am almost done (ha!) with the work I will be doing but need hardware to mount the grill, headlight frame, headlights, the cover beneath the fan and the nuts to hold the radiator in place.
I am doing the shackle reverse this weekend and will be mounting the 33s so I can drive the damn thing to register it.
I would love it if some company sold bags of assorted hardware.

 

[Halo3]

I hate to say this, but your options are pretty varied...

You could hit up SOR, and piece together everything, but this is kind of a PITA because each nut, bolt, washer, lock washer, cotter pin, etc. is its own piece...not too many of them are sold as a set or kit.  And, not only will you have to scour through their catalog to find each piece, you have to know how many of a particular nut & bolt combo goes in each place, and then order x number of those pieces. I went this route when I had to replace the two upper front shock pins on my '78 FJ40 (original ones were stripped out).  I think that was around $32 for the two pins plus all the washers & nuts. So, this will get you the fasteners that are the closest the OEM ones (if not the actual OEM units), but will likely be the more expensive route.

Another, and likely cheaper, option would be to start getting bolt size & lengths written down, and then head over to either a car parts place or a hardware store, and piece together suitable fasteners.

On a side note, a pair of tap & die sets (SAE & metric) can be your best friends for projects like this. If used carefully, you can use a tap to determine the thread size & count of a threaded hole, or use a die to determine the same for a threaded stud. Alternatively, you can also use them to fix bad threads, or completely re-thread something in order to get a more common SAE bolt/nut in or on something.

Good luck with the hunt!!

 

[rick_d]

one strong piece of advice on at least the nut side of things,

au-ve-co and their suppliers sell JIS (japanese industrial standard) nuts and you should get one box of each of the 3 sizes. All are 1.25 pitch, and they come in 8, 10, and 12 mm hole sizes. These have smaller heads then hardware sizes, so the 8mm will have a 12mm head vs hardware 13mm. 14 instead of 15 (or 16?), and 17 instead of 19. Make life simple.

also get a load of 8 (aka 5/16), 10, and 12 washers and lock washers.

For bolts, the single easiest thing to do is go to a pick and pull wrecking yard with a bucket and just take them off all Japanese cars (your cruiser won't care if its from a corolla or a trooper). The cleanest bolts are under the dash and inside.

 

[78fj40badger]

I definitely like the junkyard idea best . I'm doing my shackle reverse Saturday so I guess Sunday will have to be the day for roaming about the rusted plains looking for little strange bits of hardware. Thanks.

 

[Gumby]

I think it's worth it to buy a box of each of the most common bolts. I got mine from Fastenal. It's worth it to not havet o dig through the five gallon bucket of bolts every time I need something.
Really it's just 4-5 boxes of bolts and the same number of nuts. Not that much money.