Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Sooo...

I pulled my passenger door off to replace the front passenger fender. I left the door off, because it's roughly a gazillion times easier to work on the interior without a door.

If I recall, the original bolts are at least a little bit unique in that they have a stamping on the head???

And now, my car will be going to body and paint before I can get up to my car and dig through my bins to find the original door hinge bolts. And I can't ask anyone to dig through a dozen bins to find those bolts.

If the originals are unique, I'd like to use originals.

Are they unique? 67.5 1600

Thanking you. pm

Peter,
The bolts are 1/4 inch fine thread with a unique head that has a recessed center, grade unknown. I never reused mine as they were old and I didn’t feel there was enough of an argument for absolutely perfect reproduction of the car. I built mine to drive, not to be a trailer queen. You can buy aftermarket bolts that will secure the perfectly and never have to worry about a 50 plus year old bolt failing. That said a bunch of purists here will tell you it’s sacrilegious to use anything that not period correct. Do what you want, it’s your car is she a trailer queen or something you just love to drive.
Dave

It’s sacrilegious to use a non-period correct bolt. A 50-year old hinge bolt will never fail, and even if it did, how would that happen, and what consequences would ensue anyway? Seriously, I’d never reuse an old bolt for anything to do with the suspension, or other part that is actually subject to stress which if it failed could hurt or kill me; however, if you can reuse an old bolt by all means do so. Why not?

Ok John,
I hear what you’re saying, but so many of the bolts that I took out of my car were at best sketchy on a good day. Like I said, for me I built my car to drive. I also know that you too drive yours and she’s not a trailer queen. Good on you, to me it’s just not that important. Your car is way nicer than mine, no two ways about it. Many of the bolts that I removed on my car had threads that I could see as compromised and not worth the effort or repurposing, the bolts used on the body and other non high stress areas by Nissan were of just good enough quality. My 2.5 cents worth.
Dave

Bolts are 1/4-28 x 18mm long. I used 3/4" stainless bolt. I had mine replated and might use them on the second car but I doubt it. If I do they will have antiseize liberally applied to them.

Well, to further the mutual admiration, Dave has guided me out of the wilderness a couple/few times in regards to my Solexes. Also, did a bang-up job transforming my open diff into a LSD. They’re a handful of guys who I consider a technical “Yoda” in our community, and Dave is definitely one of them. As such, I consider all of his musings and advice with due respect.

But back to the thread! I like to keep things as original/period-correct as much as possible. I love the “history” associated with our cars and keeping even what some would consider benign details true to how the car rolled off the assembly line. Others don’t care, or place a high priority on such things. That’s ok, to each his own…

If you want to look at bolt sizes you can look at this. I did this for the 67 and older cars. I think you will find that many of the bolts and screws for body stuff are not metric on the 67.5.

http://kendo-usa.org/datsun/datsunboltlist.xlsx

Bolt Depot is your friend for not over paying for hardware.

david premo wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 8:47 pm Peter,
The bolts are 1/4 inch fine thread with a unique head that has a recessed center, grade unknown. I never reused mine as they were old and I didn’t feel there was enough of an argument for absolutely perfect reproduction of the car. I built mine to drive, not to be a trailer queen. You can buy aftermarket bolts that will secure the perfectly and never have to worry about a 50 plus year old bolt failing. That said a bunch of purists here will tell you it’s sacrilegious to use anything that not period correct. Do what you want, it’s your car is she a trailer queen or something you just love to drive.
Dave

Thanks Dave. Ha! I guess I'm somewhere between Trailer Queen and Driver... I plan on driving my Trailer Queen. I want to be original as much as reasonably possible. But, I've built a stroker, swapped to a 5-speed, and will (hopefully) have a custom suspension, so I suppose I'm not a complete purist either.

This is one of those instances where I'm just very frustrated that I'm not with my car. If I was up there, I would simply grab the original bolts and the question would be moot.

bakerjf wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 9:12 pm It’s sacrilegious to use a non-period correct bolt. A 50-year old hinge bolt will never fail, and even if it did, how would that happen, and what consequences would ensue anyway? Seriously, I’d never reuse an old bolt for anything to do with the suspension, or other part that is actually subject to stress which if it failed could hurt or kill me; however, if you can reuse an old bolt by all means do so. Why not?

Thanks John!

Curtis wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 11:35 pm If you want to look at bolt sizes you can look at this. I did this for the 67 and older cars. I think you will find that many of the bolts and screws for body stuff are not metric on the 67.5.

http://kendo-usa.org/datsun/datsunboltlist.xlsx

Bolt Depot is your friend for not over paying for hardware.

Thank you for this Curtis! This will be really helpful. I appreciate it.

And finally, I did a search through my photos and found a poor image of the hinge bolts. They are unique and I'd rather use them than not. That being said, if anyone has a good reliable-looking set that I can "borrow", I would send those to the paint guy, and when I'm up there in July, I will send you back my originals.

Peter,

I have some new bolts that have the correct recessed head, a star washer, and if you add a flat washer underneath, they look almost identical to the originals-- I'll dig some out and post a photo tonight. I'm happy to send you 16 of them for your restoration.

Michael

spriso wrote: Fri May 05, 2023 2:36 pm Peter,

I have some new bolts that have the correct recessed head, a star washer, and if you add a flat washer underneath, they look almost identical to the originals-- I'll dig some out and post a photo tonight. I'm happy to send you 16 of them for your restoration.

Michael

Michael, that sounds perfect! Let me know what I need to do.

Thank you so much, I really, really appreciate it.
Peter

Well... it was all good until it wasn't.

My bolts are 5/8" long, not 3/4 or 7/8" like I would recommend.



Sorry that did not work out-- I was sure they were 3/4" versions...

Michael

Where did you get those? Older US car bolts?

The 3/4 allowed me to put flat and lock washers on. I always put the smooth edge of the flat towards the paint. Original is just lock.

spriso wrote: Fri May 05, 2023 10:04 pm Well... it was all good until it wasn't.

My bolts are 5/8" long, not 3/4 or 7/8" like I would recommend.



Sorry that did not work out-- I was sure they were 3/4" versions...

Michael

Curtis wrote: Fri May 05, 2023 10:24 pm The 3/4 allowed me to put flat and lock washers on. I always put the smooth edge of the flat towards the paint. Original is just lock.

Thank you both.

@spriso
No worries, Michael, thank you for the thought and the effort...

@curtis
Thanks for the tip.

I think I'm going to 'hire' my nephew to go through my boxes of parts. I will ask him to pull out the door bolts, and the hood hinge bolts to give to the paint guy. I'll have him send me my door sill trim to me so I can refurb that, and also send me my satin headlight scoops that I am reluctantly selling.

He's been a big help and as much as I hate asking for favors, he always appreciates a little gas money.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the advice.
Peter

Datsun used metric length with inch bolts. The four hood bolts are 16mm, .12 longer than 5/8". The parts book shows a lock and flat washer. If you use longer than that then it will bottom out and can dent the hood.