STAINLESS STEEL PARTS FOR A GTR OR GTO.

[reed]

Stainless steel parts for a GTR or GTO.
I had some parts made up for my GTR.
And some came in today rear wheel collar
Part number 7426-9000  spacer A 3386-9000.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Steve.

[reed]

This is a picture showing the rear collar etc.
Thanks.
Steve.

[rocketman]

 Looks fantastic. You can't beat stainless for replacing hardware. Its way easier than re-zincing the old stuff. You just polish it. It doesn't rust back, takes a long time to dull if at all, Can't peel and shines like chrome! Nice. Thanks, Mark.

[OldSwartout]

Those parts look great, Steve.  I managed to find NOS parts for mine, but the SS parts are really nice and look better than NOS.  Where did you have them made?

It's great that there are so many things in SS these days.  I use SS nuts and bolts a lot of places where I don't want to have to deal with rust and corrosion in the future, just have to be careful since there aren't any strength standards for SS nuts and bolts.

[rocketman]

 Karl is absolutely correct that stainless bolts in general are not considered as strong as your typical carbon steel bolts because their lack of carbon content prevents them from being hardened. They are also not all equal as some have varying percentages of chromium and nickel content. Most stainless fall somewhere between a weak grade three and grade five. There are manufacturers who specialize in high tensile strength stainless fasteners for racing and industrial applications, but tensile and overall hardness are two different things. (also expensive). Stainless seems to want to stretch a bit more even in the higher tensile strengths. For most applications they will be fine and still harder than an ordinary hardware store shelf fastener.  Thanks, Karl.  Mark.

[rocketman]

 You can special order polished stainless bolts, or do them yourself. I have it down to a three step process to cut the bolt heads and a two step polishing. I use a dual action sander with 80 grit paper to do the initial cut followed by 220, then 320 grit. picture is a comparison between a factory smooth style bolt head and what you would buy as a standard stainless replacement.

[rocketman]

 You can skip the 220 grit step, but it will take a little longer to smooth it before polishing. Picture is of bolt after 320 grit step.

[rocketman]

 Once you remove the lettering, you tilt the bolt a bit and run it around in a circle to bevel the edges. I use red rouge followed by white to bring the shine back.. Picture is a comparison of the polished stainless and the factory zinc finished bolt.

[rocketman]

 Sorry about the picture quality. I had a hard time getting focus and I am no kind of photographer.  Thanks, Mark.

[reed]

This is a picture of the seat collar part number 3386-9000 on my Bridgestone GTR.
Thanks.
Steve.