Can somebody please tell me what nuts & bolts are used in all the minis & coopers?are they UNF & where would you go to buy them? Cheers .

All bolts with very very few exceptions are UNC/UNF.

Any bolt supplier can provide them (Coventry, etc).

You existing bolts will most likely come up to nearly perfect with a zinc plate process. About 80 dollars for a 20 litre bucket full of bolts.You also get the benefit of throwing all the other small sundry items into the process as well, like washers, very large nuts, small brackets, springs, etc etc.

There are also suppliers who may provide a kit of bolts for your car.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Mick, any tips for someone trying to remember which bolt goes where once you have thrown them in a bucket to be plated?

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SPO41 Mk2 Cooper S very original
1993 R32 Nissan Skyline GTR

I don't have a hard and fast set of rules for the colouring, it gets a little convoluted if you want to be absolutely precise.

General nuts and bolts I used for the later cars came out of the car with gold, so are plated gold. A lot of small screws from inside trim etc are silver, so I did those the same. Then there are specialist spots where these rules don't apply. This may be because the bolts and nuts came as part of a completed assembly from a third party (SUs, Booster, Wiper motor, instruments etc for example) and are made on a case by case basis on what you have in front of you as you dissassemble them. The boot board screws are supposed to be antique instead of the normal silver according to John Schmidt (who seems to be very well informed on the subject of plating, he is a Electroplater by trade), and I think sometimes the little screws were chromed (Instruments, switch panel and demister plates maybe on the Coopers? ) Some items of the car are not bright silver, but are gun metal silver (or similar) for example the Lockheed Booster cases.

I am not too pedantic, but split the bolts out into silver or gold, and the platers are happy to work with a division in the finish without any dramas. My simplified rule of thumb to suit myself only was to put nuts and bolts and washers and sundries into gold, and self tapping and metal thread screws (and their little washers) into silver. Everything else was a case by case basis.

I always keep a box of 5/16 and 7/16 nuts and spring wahers to hand which come as silver in any case, so it may all go to pot once you start assembling and the new nuts are within reach But the original bolts are all marked AJAX on the top with the special marks, and it looks good when it all goes together as a little piece of personal pride.

If you REALLY want to get anal, the bolts used on an english assembled engine are different to the Australian one, as the bolts came from an English supplier. They have a little recess in the center of the bolt. I like to gather these aside for the engine assembly, just to excercise the anal retentive side a little...

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

After years of building bikes and working as a parts interpreter an older customer told me he use to bag and tag the bolts per section but he would lay them in assembly order next to a ruler as they came out eg. bolt-washer-spring washer-nut and take a photo of it (very anal).

I tried this on the last bike i restored and it does work well, eats up serious time but when a bucket of shiny nuts, bolts, washers and springs come back from plating, re bagging and quantity checking is SOOOOO much easier and a lot less grey hairs

Bolts usually have a job to do, and the factory for sake of economy will try not to use bolts that are longer than required.
So you select the bolt for the job, that passes through the nut fully with as few turns left over as possible.

There's a few tricks.
Pointy ended bolts were used for the rear subframes for aligning blind holes when mounting them up.
You have to know where the hi tensile bolts are (don't zinc plate plate these at all).
Take photos of the trim screws as they come apart, these are often metal thread, or countersunk, or a particular head shape and can be tricky to spot out of the pile when it all goes back together.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

UNF and UNC bolts are normally marked on their heads to indicate tensile strength. On Minis most are either grade 8 (high tensile strength) or grade 5 (medium tensile strength). Grade 8 bolts are marked with 6 radiating lines on their head. Usually on Minis they are not plated and are finished with a black treatment. Grade 5 bolts are marked with three lines on their heads. They are usually plated.



When you remove the bolts its good practice to check what grade they are so that the correct grade goes back in the right spot. Its the same with studs in the engine, you can usually tell their grad by what type of plating they have.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

I am onto my second one of these kits, personally I think they are fantastic and with 11 minis in the shed they come in very handy. Generally get close to 2 full nut and bolt restos out of a kit http://www.imperialnutsandbolts.com/fas ... _1027.html

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S