Best cadmium plated nut source??

[George Poynter]

I'm restoring and replating as many of the original bolt fasteners on my 67 as I can, but I thought it would be a good idea to replace the nuts, flat/lock washers with new. Is there a reconized " best source", in terms of quality for these fasteners? Same holds true for the black fasteners? Thanks in advance for the input.

GP

[Chuck S.]

Re: Best cadmium plated nut source??

George, in my opinion, your best bet is a local industial fastener store.

In my opinion, you won't find cadmium anywhere on fasteners these days because of enviromental impact of cadmium plating. For most industrial purposes now, zinc is the standard; it's long-lived, cheapest, and it's readily available.

Anyone says they can tell the difference between cadmium and zinc plated is confused; part preparation before plating will change the plated appearance, but not the metals themselves. As for appearance, you'll be stuck with whatever the manufacturer provides; usually you'll get a slick, shiny clear/blue zinc plate on fasteners...this may or may not be what you want for a given application.

Unless the fastener is a special fastener used only by GM on Corvettes, industrial supply stores are likely to have what you need...they stock a wide variety of fasteners never before seen at the likes of Home Depot. Further, you can have a little more confidence that when they say Grade 5 at an industrial supply store, they won't break at low loads like discount purchased imports.

In very special cases, some restoration fasteners have enough demand that it's profitable for Corvette vendors to stock and sell them. Paragon is probably pre-eminent in this field, but watch their proffered headstamps...sometimes either they don't know the application of headstamps, or they are trying to extend an application beyond its appropriateness.