Bout to finally place the order for the entire front end rebuild.

Any word on the best place for finding replacement bolts for those that are too far gone- beat up threads, bent, stripped heads, missing ?

I have the 1979 Camaro Assembly Line manual, but that doesnt have that info. Is there such a thing that says "oh, thats a 2" long 3/8" coarse threaded bolt"?

What about some kind of printable chart that you can hold a bolt up to and get an instant id with?

 

I'm not sure about where to find a printable deal but advance and auto zone both have the deal that you can take the bolt in and thread it into it and find out the right size. I think Lowes has one too, thats where I get most of my hardware (really I have a good supply at work). As a rule most every thing is a 3/8" by whatever legnth, usually. Control arm bolts are 1/2 13 and there are some 5/16. I can eyeball them but I work with nuts and bolts all day. There maybe some metric stuff being a 79 too.

Something to remember. You are working on a 79 which can be a bear. They made so many that year that they had to start using parts that were suspposed to be used on 80s. In 1980 they are metric all over. I'm not sure what year they changed the wheel bearing dia. Its just the id so the bearing looks right but doesnt fit. Same for upper control arm bushing. I'm not tryin to scare you out of it, just making you aware it can happen. Unknowingly buying the wrong parts that is.-Damon

P.S. Send me a PM with your address and I'll send you a gauge I have that gives bolt diameter and thread pitch.

 

You also need to check the grade (strenght) of the bolt, which is marked on the head of the bolt.

 

As expected, a dat full of rusted out, bent and broken bolts.

The inner fender skirts or what ever the name for them are were never mounted right. Missing hardware, wrong hardware (some friggan zip screw here and there), and some rusted out garbage I'd hate to have to put back in.

One of the thinsg I came across were those stainless steel kits. I remember when I used to race remote control cars, they were great to have cause the rust issue also affect remote control cars. When we would use those kits to replace the stock items, no more rust. It also looked a lot cooler.

Whats some opinions on the stainless kits? Are they done on a "section of the car" basis like one kit for "the interior", one kit for "the engine", one kit for "the under carriage"?

I dont want to buy 500 bolt to find out I can only really use 100 and it turns out I paid 50 cents a bolt.

Has anyone ordered any kits like this?

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/f...ain2.asp?cat=8

 

If you live near salt water, you can go to a good marine supply yard and find all sorts of stainless hardware, but you may not like what they charge.

 

Home town of Staten ISLAND ....although im in NJ now You know of anyone who ordered any of the various kits out there?

 

The boat yards will have individual pieces, but the only kits they may have is engine bolt kits. Should be plenty of marinas in your area, so go shopping around and annoy the sales people, lol