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I posed the question of whether anyone had seen a repository of information on OE hardware manufacturers and approximate manufacturing timelines. Not much response. But while the majority of folks are content to reassemble their projects with anything that is JIS correct, there is a significant subset of people who are interested in what is period correct for their rig.
I’ve been wrenching on Landcruisers for five decades now, and have amassed literally tens of thousands of pieces of OE hardware across the entire spectrum of production. IOW, I’ve seen a lot. But I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention. I have this general sense that the earliest hardware (M6&M8 for the moment) was all clear (silver) zinc, and that somewhere around 1967 there was a wholesale change to yellow zinc. Also I have a sense that the earliest hardware had a flat surface with raised numbers, which moved to the more familiar double ring around the same time as the change from clear to yellow.
BUT, and this is a big BUT, it’s highly doubtful that Japan only had one hardware manufacturer, or that only one manufacturer was supplying Toyota. I have not seen if the Japanese hardware industry developed a database like we have domestically, to determine the exact origin of hardware. This seems to be an area that is ripe for speculation.
My personal hunch is that there was more than one supplier, and that the color change was implemented at different times by different companies. Since most of what we end up looking at is rust, the clues are harder to decipher.
So my purpose here is to gather datapoints from those of you who have been able to harvest and successfully reuse OE hardware to supply: M size, head configurations, production dates, and OE color if you know. For example: M6, raised number, 10/64, clear. Or M6, double ring, 10/68, yellow.
I thought of trying to start an OFFICIAL HARDWARE thread, but I think it would get messy real fast, as real life input is often messy. So I think it would be better for now to just throw the gates open, and to cull the raw data into more defined timelines down the road, in a different thread, when we have several hundred datasets to work with.
Here’s a little M8 sampling to start with. Notice how the first five, even though they are all early raised head are different. I’m sure the difference in the size and shape of the numbers helps indicate different manufacturers. But the fact that the two in the center are yellow zinc, yet from what I have always considered the ‘clear’ timeframe, that was a surprise even to me. How? Because I am only now starting the process of dragging dozens and dozen of boxes of accumulated hardware out of their hermetic burrows in my shop and bringing them to the confluence!
Ultimately, this will be a huge, group effort, that will hopefully continue to bear fruit long after we’re gone. It would be nice if you hit the like button if you approve of the effort.
I’ve been wrenching on Landcruisers for five decades now, and have amassed literally tens of thousands of pieces of OE hardware across the entire spectrum of production. IOW, I’ve seen a lot. But I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention. I have this general sense that the earliest hardware (M6&M8 for the moment) was all clear (silver) zinc, and that somewhere around 1967 there was a wholesale change to yellow zinc. Also I have a sense that the earliest hardware had a flat surface with raised numbers, which moved to the more familiar double ring around the same time as the change from clear to yellow.
BUT, and this is a big BUT, it’s highly doubtful that Japan only had one hardware manufacturer, or that only one manufacturer was supplying Toyota. I have not seen if the Japanese hardware industry developed a database like we have domestically, to determine the exact origin of hardware. This seems to be an area that is ripe for speculation.
My personal hunch is that there was more than one supplier, and that the color change was implemented at different times by different companies. Since most of what we end up looking at is rust, the clues are harder to decipher.
So my purpose here is to gather datapoints from those of you who have been able to harvest and successfully reuse OE hardware to supply: M size, head configurations, production dates, and OE color if you know. For example: M6, raised number, 10/64, clear. Or M6, double ring, 10/68, yellow.
I thought of trying to start an OFFICIAL HARDWARE thread, but I think it would get messy real fast, as real life input is often messy. So I think it would be better for now to just throw the gates open, and to cull the raw data into more defined timelines down the road, in a different thread, when we have several hundred datasets to work with.
Here’s a little M8 sampling to start with. Notice how the first five, even though they are all early raised head are different. I’m sure the difference in the size and shape of the numbers helps indicate different manufacturers. But the fact that the two in the center are yellow zinc, yet from what I have always considered the ‘clear’ timeframe, that was a surprise even to me. How? Because I am only now starting the process of dragging dozens and dozen of boxes of accumulated hardware out of their hermetic burrows in my shop and bringing them to the confluence!
Ultimately, this will be a huge, group effort, that will hopefully continue to bear fruit long after we’re gone. It would be nice if you hit the like button if you approve of the effort.
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