[Tigers] Carbonized Bolts

[Randall Antosiak]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about thecarbonized finish on some of the engine compartment bolts.   As near as I can tell, this subject has notbeen addressed in the Tiger list before, and I could not find references onGoogle, so the comments were much appreciated.


Larry Mayfield provided the most comprehensive descriptionof carbonizing:

Carbonizing is not a process forincreased look of the fastener, but a metallurgical process to increase thestrength of the fastener.  Black bolts and fasteners have increased carbonto increase the strength: ie the bolts that hold the front cross member inplace with the frame.  Or the bolts that hold the motor mounts to theengine block and the plates to the frame. And inside the engines, head bolts,main and rod bolts.  So do not put a grade 2 bolt in place of a grade 5 orgrade 8 bolt just to make it look better.  If you need black bolts, butthem from ARP.  Or Caterpillar. And don’t paint them or try to heat treatthem yourselves.  


So if youwant to keep your original bolts, the problem boils down to refreshing the lookof those bolts which have already had the carbonizing process.   For a quickie refresh on the bolts, theycould be painted flat black, but it is not exactly the same look, and boltpainting is tricky because it’s easy to chip the paint when installing the bolt.

What I planto look into is applying a black oxide finish to the bolts.  There are a few kits available on-line,although they are not cheap.  Here is alink to a Caswell video on their product:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4qeen12fuc


 
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