Series 3 Crap kit of stainless fixings

Hey all,

On account of moving house I have put the front wings back onto my ‘75 SWB and given it a service. It is now happily motoring about and all is well.

Problem was, when I went to put my wings back on I decided to use the nice new Stainless fixings that I had bought in a kit from Wrights Auto Supplies. I was initially impressed when I opened the box to discover the fixings all sorted into groupings and there was a different sealed bag for left and right front wings. I then got a bit narked when I discovered that most of the bolts were too big for the holes and way too long.

Anyone else had this problem or any recommendations for suppliers of better kits? I don’t think this kit was that cheap and am considering sending it back. It is supposed to be for SIII and various Defenders and I wonder if later SIIIs used fatter, metric fixings?

I am not sure I want to end up with some metric and some imperial on the Landy. So do I bite the metric bullet or source imperial?

cheers,

Al

Yup, I had the same problem! The door hinge fixings in particular were a big problem, is that the screw heads were just too big.

I ended up just buying the individual screws and other fixings by part number from the catalogue, using lrworkshop.com to check for equivalents, and then ordering from ebay and/or lrdirect.com. The idea of the kit sounds good in theory, and I'd bought several kits for wings, seatbox, doors, etc, but I don't think any of them were perfect. I decided to stick to imperial (ie. proper part numbers) where possible, rather than going the metric route.

Same issue here but i persevered and ground down the head enough to fit, and then cut them shorter.

Edit: Apologies, that was the hinge bolts, the wing bolts I did as above and ordered separate stainless bolts of the correct size.

With late series threes the factory fitted a full house of mixed fastenings. BSF/WHIT + UNF/UNC And a few metric sizes.

Be wary of using too much stainless as it has galvanic corrosion with the ally panels. The OEM zinc plated is much better, potential of zinc is much closer to ally. If you must use stainless (I do sometimes) then slap mastic on it to put a barrier between the ss and the ally. I put some SS bolts into the all skin on the read door 5 years ago and there is now noticeable discolouration and some corrosion so I'll be taking them out soon.

My S3 1977 has a wonderful selection of metric and imperial bits and bobs. I change them all into metric as I go along, one by one.

Riggwelter said:

My S3 1977 has a wonderful selection of metric and imperial bits and bobs. I change them all into metric as I go along, one by one.

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It does make good sense do do that if you don't mind compromising the originality. I must be honest, I do get frustrated searching my tool chest for a 5/8 unc spanner.

Col

Yup, ordered stainless flange screws for the spare wheel bracket on the Hippo. Was appalled to find that they were all the same length, too fûcking long! If I'd dropped the window god knows what damage that would have caused. If I can find the supplier I'll post the name.

rob1miles said:

Be wary of using too much stainless as it has galvanic corrosion with the ally panels. The OEM zinc plated is much better, potential of zinc is much closer to ally. If you must use stainless (I do sometimes) then slap mastic on it to put a barrier between the ss and the ally. I put some SS bolts into the all skin on the read door 5 years ago and there is now noticeable discolouration and some corrosion so I'll be taking them out soon.

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I use nylon washers front & back and a good smear of silicon grease. So far no problems after up to 3 years but I do monitor it.

Colthebrummie said:

It does make good sense do do that if you don't mind compromising the originality. I must be honest, I do get frustrated searching my tool chest for a 5/8 unc spanner.Col

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I had to get an imperial socket kit from the Swedish correspondence to Halfords, about £35. Saved me a lot of hassle.

Here in the UK imperial spanners and sockets are at all the yard/boot sales and very cheap, also usually very high quality. since many aircraft are imperial you can get really high grade tools at sales near airports as people retire and sell of their tools.

A good mechanic/engineer will never sell their tools, retired or not. It's their widows that flog em for next to nowt.

Col

I fear you are right. The heyday of imperial A/F in the UK was probably in the 60 and 70s when cars, bikes and aircraft were UNF/UNC. Many aircraft are still are UNF UNC as the USA never went metric.but if you look at the Tridents, Comets and VC10s they are all gone. I served my apprenticeship on VC10s and we all were issued with full sets of Britool sockets and spanners (at our expense of course!) and I'm still using mine 50 years on this year.and they are still showing no wear. A lot of the guys I worked with were heavy smokers and didn't even live to retire.

rob1miles said:

I fear you are right. The heyday of imperial A/F in the UK was probably in the 60 and 70s when cars, bikes and aircraft were UNF/UNC. Many aircraft are still are UNF UNC as the USA never went metric.but if you look at the Tridents, Comets and VC10s they are all gone. I served my apprenticeship on VC10s and we all were issued with full sets of Britool sockets and spanners (at our expense of course!) and I'm still using mine 50 years on this year.and they are still showing no wear. A lot of the guys I worked with were heavy smokers and didn't even live to retire.

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I was only a humble bus mechanic 45 years ago but I've still got my tools from then too, the trouble is finding the buggers when I most need them. Many years ago, I did a car boot sale and got rid of a lot of junk from the garage, including some massive whitworth spanners, old fellers were almost fighting over them.

Col

Over the years I have met a few mechs who have gone into a different line of work and sold their tools, only to find the grass was not greener and came back into the mechs game, and of course the price of tools only ever goes one way!

screwfix etc sell galvy/zinc bolts etc that are absolutely fine to use if you are prepared to cut them to length.

rynner said:

screwfix etc sell galvy/zinc bolts etc that are absolutely fine to use if you are prepared to cut them to length.

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...although if you cut down a zinc plated bolt, the cut end will no longer be plated, and so will likely rust. I avoided cutting down screws and bolts as much as possible. ebay has some very useful suppliers of most sizes needed, although there are a few specials, of course.

Never use stainless, brim bright and SS don't mix, I think original ones are cadmium plated

Cad and passivated makes sense with ally.

rob1miles said:

Cad and passivated makes sense with ally.

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I know what I am talking about, I have big nuts....