Stainless Steel Bolts

When replacing the factory Door Bolts, Bonnet Bolts, etc with stainless steel items, do you have to use anything on the threads beforehand to protect the alloy bodywork, or is it not an issue?

The bolts go into P clips or nuts and there are rubber plates between the hinges and the body. I didn't use anything at all.... I would have used copper slip but I don't want them to come undone very easily!

You should use copper slip on any stainless steel bolts because they're prone to binding. I also covered my P-clips on the A-post with plenty of ACF-50, and I also sprayed in as much Dinitrol in there as I could when I had the hinges off.

But do you want them to be easily removed. To be honest I'd rather have to drill them out. I don't want someone breaking in that way.

cowasaki said:

But do you want them to be easily removed.

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Yes, I don't want to drill out another set.

I work with stainless bolts every day we grease them as they gaul easily all very well saying just drill them out but stainless isnt the easiest to drill

I take it you'd also disagree with the practice of hammering a ball bearing into the hex hole and painting over the head with black hammerite. ......

Thanks for the advice

cowasaki said:

i take it you'd also disagree with the practice of hammering a ball bearing into the hex hole and painting over the head with black hammerite. ......

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Use different grades of stainless for nuts and bolts, otherwise they fuse together. Copper grease is your friend always

I use a lot of stainless nuts and bolts with plenty of copper slip for other areas it's just the door bolts that I would rather be very difficult to remove. It's simple enough to remove the door card and cut the nut off to remove the door then just fit a new bolt again. It's a bit more difficult to sort out the hinge to bulkhead but it's doable and not something that needs to come apart that often.