Bolt sizes and too much time on my hands

[hegedus]

So I am a new owner (72 tii) with apparently too much time on my hands. I was trying to decide what stock of hex bolts I should lay in for my project. Not wanting to buy piece parts at the dealer or auto parts store nor do I want to buy an assortment that would have many unneeded parts, I did want any good geek would do.

I went to RealOEM and did a search on "hex bolt" and got all the part numbers and then looked up the description (size mostly) and then did some quick summaries. Lots of the same size bolts have different part numbers. I then created a summary table that shows the most common size. There is also a column for where it is used. You can do a quick sort to see if you have sizes on hand for your project.I can now order the main ones from McMaster for my upcoming projects. Parts based on 72 tii.

I though I share my handy work.

[TobyB]

Oh, dear.

I just took apart a bunch of cars, sorted the bolts into bins, and got

to roughly the same place....

heh

t

[BillWilliams]

At one time, I too had too much time on my hands and took a shot at what you did. You did good work

Over in the Administration Section, Articles Under Construction, I started a thread.

Can you add your creation to that? That will put the information in one thread and being in that section, it does not scroll off like they do here.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,316417/

[///mChris]

This is great! I'm getting ready to order some bolts from mcmaster for my restoration. I'll take this into consideration for my random bolts

[JohnS]

If you're looking for the yellow zinc coated nuts and bolts, BelMetric is a good source. I like McMaster Carr also, but BelMetric for the Yellow zinc stuff.

http://www.belmetric.com/

[///mChris]

Thanks for the tip! BelMetric is exactly the kind of store I've been looking for.

[Mike_B]

Nice! Thanks for the effort... Now, if you would have just included the quantities. ;-)

[///mChris]

I had the same first reaction. Then I found that the quantities are summarized in the second tab! Thanks!!

[eurotrash]

PDF'd and in my phone. thanks man

[Mike_B]

I had the same first reaction. Then I found that the quantities are summarized in the second tab! Thanks!!

Well I'll be... I was so happy to see the list, I never looked for an additional tab. Thanks!

[hegedus]

Quick point of clarification.

The usage tab shows the number of assemblies that use that bolt, not the total number of bolts used in the car.

In RealOEM as you drill down to find a part number the lowest level picture is an assembly which typically has 3 - 20 individual parts. For example if there are 4 bolts of a given size in that one assembly. I counted that as 1 in my usage not 4.

So if there is a number such as 10, then 10 assemblies use that bolt, i.e. it is common and worth having on hand. If it is 1 then maybe I buy those only as needed.

[Beaner7102]

... Lots of the same size bolts have different part numbers. ....

Could that be because they have different tensile ratings?

I'd rather err on the side of caution and work out the harder ones and use that for all - just a thought.

Glad you had the time on your hands to help us all out though.

Beaner7102

[hegedus]

Perhaps though the description provided by RealOEM occasionally made mention of additional specs which I included but most just had sizes.

My guess is circa 1972 they had limited ability to truly track parts and have just one part number per fastener. I used to work at Applied Materials which makes semiconductor process equipment and they had duplicate part numbers for the same fasteners well into 2003 when they tried had to consolidate the part counts. So my guess they had different engineers on the subsystems and each created a part number for the bolt they needed. Really quite common occurrence.

[mike472]

Bel-Metric is a great source because you can buy one at a time of anything you want unlike McMaster-Carr or Grainger. They also have metric fuel line, copper nuts for exhausts and special body bolts all Zinc Chromated. The only bolts I found they didn't have exact replacements for were the oil pan bolts(the ones on my 76 block had not one but two washer fixed in place). The other are the giant bolts that hold your control arms on the subframe. They have a bolt thats close in size that would work but I am plating my originals after polishing in a tumbler. I followed Bill Williams suggestion and used Pugh Metal Plating in NC to do the plating.

My opinion is just buy what you need with maybe a couple of spares and get bags of 100 on things like 8mm nuts, 6mm nuts, 6&8 mm spring and regular washers. You will use a shitload of those. There are some others that are used in some numbers. I think I spent about $60 the first time and got most of the engine bolts and bags of the aforementioned stuff. The price drops at 100pcs.

If someone really wanted a project they could make a spreadsheet from RealOem that shows the bolt and nut size across the columns at the top and list the assemblies that use them down the side. Total the columns and presto you have a bolt list with quantities. You just have to drink a lot of coffee and get down to it!

[austinmf]

Anyone have a list of the bolt sizes? I some how misplaced my engine to transmission bolts and need to replace a few.