C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

[Dave Sly]

The judging manual says to use bolts with an M enclosed within a circle. The closest I could find was Paragon with the double circle (no M). Any idea on where to get the proper bolts?

[Terry D.]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

Swap meets, junk yards, Corvette's at Carlisle, some things just aren't reproduced.
Terry

[Dave Sly]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

As luck would have it, I found the original bolts. My uncle took the car apart in 1972 and gave me boxes of parts for this car (and others that he had disassembled during that time). Another piece of luck is that the spacers for the bolts with the french locks were there as well. An interesting observations is that the long middle bolts all had lock washers (which the earlier posts said were not correct). Those lock washers look just as old and period correct as the spacers. I guess that I won't re-install the lock washers due to the JM (of course I don't know if they were added in the 60's or not).

[Terry D.]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

Dave

As they say, I would rather be lucky than good any day. Can't help you out on the lock washers, but you might want to contact the judging team leader and ask them
Terry

[Joe L.]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

Dave-----

One thing to keep in mind: these bolts become through-hardened as a result of the high heat and cooling cycles. That means that they lose strength and can break. It's important to consider this when using used bolts for this application.

[Dave Sly]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

Joe,

Do you think the double circle bolts from Paragon would lose points? I'm rebuilding a 59 250Hp Fuelie and want to try for top flight. I'm inclined to put them on and give it a shot (20 pounds for the smaller end bolts and 30 pounds for the larger middle ones I have read).

[Joe L.]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

Dave-----

I couldn't advise as to what would be acceptable for judging. However, you could use the original bolts for judging and, then, change them to the NEW bolts later. It's not all that difficult to replace these bolts, especially if you do them one at a time.

[John H.]

Re: C1 1959 Exhaust Manifold Bolts

I'd also use anti-seize on them - makes removal much easier, no galled threads.