Replacing all the nuts and bolts and washers and other small fittings on the car with new original equipment will cost around £2000.00. Take it from someone who made this costly mistake during their first rebuild when they were young.
It isn't necessary, if the fasteners still have a good thread and aren't badly corroded or stretched they will still work fine. Replace what needs replacing, spring washers, seals and gaskets and the like. The rest will clean up well enough with a wire brush (the brass tooth brush type are perfect) and some Gunk. You could actually buy yourself a small desktop electric powered parts washer tank for far less than the cost of replacing all the fasteners in the car. One of the many different parts manuals will be excellent for telling you what goes where and what amount of washers and the like you should find at each location when you rebuild. Buy any missing bits but don't replace what is still in good servicable condition.
If you source replacements from non original equipment suppliers make sure they are the correct grade. I wouldn't trust a generic bolt pack from Halfords to be made of high tensile steel even if they were the right thread.
Before you thread anything non-genuine into the car make sure it is the correct thread form. The Mini has many different threads in use, UNF, UNC, Metric, Metric superfine, BSF, BA..... Make sure you are using the right part to avoid damage.
Don't be tempted by stainless. Stainless may look pretty but is useless for holding things together. The prettier it is, the more brittle it becomes. Grades of stainless that are strong enough to replace high tensile steel have little more corrosion resistance than high tensile does anyway and are a lot heavier.
Edited by Dan, 26 June 2008 - 12:45 AM.
but here it goes: I'm rebuilding a 81 Morris Mini. Its all in bits now but I'm making progress. I want to replace some of the old nuts and bolts with shiny new ones. I mean I have brand new brakes, coilovers etc, but I can't find new nuts and bolts so I'm relegated to trying to clean up the old ones. I went to Halfords today to look for nuts and bolts but it seems they have different threads. Where would I get new nuts and bolts for my mini? Does anyone sell a pack? Am I missing something and are these available somewhere? I know it sounds like a lame question but please help.
