Replacement Bolts and Fasteners

I've noticed all of the fasteners on the body of my M1165 are quite corroded and many are missing. Are you guys all using regular steel bolts and hardware from the hardware store, stainless, or another option for replacements for missing/corroded fasteners?

I was going to start replacing with stainless but I'm a little concerned with the galvanic corrosion that could happen with the stainless fasteners/aluminum body and it seems to me that the riv nuts used were regular steel anyway.

Best thing you can do is make sure the body is painted or primed so there's no bare aluminum.

Sent from my NX769J using Tapatalk

02smokemaker said:

Best thing you can do is make sure the body is painted or primed so there's no bare aluminum.

Sent from my NX769J using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

So are you using regular steel then?

Aluminum rivets where needed, zinc plated steel nutserts where used , zinc plated graded steel bolts.

Sent from my NX769J using Tapatalk

Unless you are buying fasteners from places like ARP, you are probably buying Chinesium. I tend to by fasteners from the local ACE Hardware as they at least seem to have the best selection and are organized so they are easy to find. I use SS when I can unless it suspension or engine and then I stick with Grade 8.

Unless I need thread locker, I always use anti-seize to prevent problems with SS on Steel/Aluminum.

If you are nowhere near saltwater then it isn't as big of a deal to use stainless bolts with aluminum bodywork.
If you live somewhere continuously damp, or especially near salt, then it's a bad idea to mix stainless and aluminum.

If you aren't familiar with it, look up "galvanic corrosion" and you'll find out about metals that don't like each other

Tractor supply has grade 5 that are painted green
You buy by the lb.
Grade 8 zinc also by the lb.
Cheapest fasteners I have found.
They also have nylon lock nuts in bulk.
Not sure how much the trump tariffs have increased price but worth it if you have one in your area.

If you want fasteners that last you need to look for fasteners with inorganic zinc coatings often called zinc-aluminum flake. Trade names include Dacromet and Geomet. Specific product lines include Armor Coat.


This is the system used by modern OEMs for chassis fasteners.

Every single fastener, except the power plant you can
get from aircraftspurce. They will send you a free catalog. Have not found a single mode of uncle sams
transportation units that they don’t carry fasteners that are original. Aircraft, boats, tanks, trucks etc.

OP may be looking for better corrosion resistance than OEM.

Looking at the tables, stainless steel and aluminum might be a cause for concern. BUT.... Having been a ham radio operator for 40+ years, all my aluminum antennas have always been put together with 316 stainless steel bolts and hardware. I also used to use NoCorrode paste with the connections. Never had a bolt / aluminum corrosion problem, even when living next to the ocean, or up at 7000' like now. Next to the ocean, the aluminum would corrode faster than any galvanic corrosion issues.

To add some bad experience, while installing a helmet top on my truck, my son used a old credit card to scrape off some scum from the top of the rear fender wells, and managed to pop off several pop rivet heads (The paint was holding the rivet heads). After further investigation with a piece of wood and hammer, I was able to very easily pop off more rivet heads. They all had stress corrosion failures where the rivet body attached to the rivet head. This is apparently a common problem when high strength materials are exposed to road salt in the winter. I wound up replacing all the pop type rivets, but added a glob of loctite 518 to each rivet, to keep out any potential moisture intrusion in the future. Hopefully that will be the end of that problem. Can't really complain; the rivets lasted 25 years (1995).

My 2 cents worth of experience.