Continued from previous post. Here we have some further conceptual adaptor design work to allow the option of a Volumex supercharger fitted on to the Wolseley Supercharge inlet manifold and belt drive coupling and shaft arrangement.
Nuts and Bolts! preparation. ......please click here to view
We have often been asked about finishing fixings during restoration projects.
Well as a bit of a post script .. or in this case pre script! I would like to add this edit and say that recently there has been a definite change. BSF stock is being dropped from many of the suppliers, as a result, the costs are escalating hugely which gives greater strength to the first two points in the following list. It also means that for the first time, I regret we will be charging for new BSF bolts even when in small quantity. We will keep this charge at the cost price.
There are several options and our decision is taken according to budget, originality and purpose.
- We can clean, dress bruising from spanners and recover threads to re use original bolts and nuts unless they are highly stressed. In this situation, we make a careful judgement and often fit or make new.
- We can clean, fettle, dress bruising, dress threads and oil black (Rolls-Royce use oil blacking on their original fittings before the during the pre war years). To oil black, we heat the prepared nut or bolt until it just begins to change to a straw / blue on the head and then quench in old oil. The end product is very effective and quite long lasting in reasonable conditions.
- We can fettle as above and paint, Suncorite (Henkel) black phosphate primer is ideal, giving a very natural oil blacked look but with excellent resilience.
- Or we can simply renew, carefully cutting "off the shelf" bolts to size or threading to produce the correct shoulder depth. We may also face the head in the lathe to remove inappropriate "modern" lettering.
As you can see there is often no quick answer, whatever we do can invariably be time consuming and easily over looked when considering time required for a project.
I personally like to use original bolts where possible, the more of the original items fitted the more satisfying the project becomes. However, if the project will be for Aero or race or highly stressed applications then new bolts of a known entity are important (and a legal requirement).
Here you can see an oil blacking process, do be aware of temperatures and related colour changes of heated steel, do not exceed temperatures. Do not oil black structural or Aero application items unless in an authorised, controlled environment.
Beware of the pungent oil smoke, keep the flame and any water vapour away as it is inflammable
The end product above and below. Note the brighter the bolt is prepared, the better the oil black finish.
Keep the bolts dampened with oil whenever you can after fitting.
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