Have you ever been frustrated by how you restore a car drive it a few times and the bolts start rusting again? Well fret no more...that is if you are willing to pay the extra “buck” for a fix!
I am in the process of resto-modding an ordinary 289 Country Sedan wagon. Blah...What is THAT worth totally restored? Well, my answer is to change the color to Medium Metallic Platinum, a Ford color, put in a Cobra SVO 460 (THANKS TED!) with a C-6 Lenko, posi rear with 350 gears and a really cool interior redo with a nice stereo. She should be able to get the ice cream home without melting!
But as I do these jobs I get sick looking at the bolts and trying to make them look good and have them stay that way. Sooooo....what to do? I found a company in Gettysburg Pennsylvania called Totally Stainless that carries a copy of almost every Ford bolt, screw, nut, washer they ever made in stainless. They DON’T make the 5/16”24 bolts in stainless that come on the pre ‘64 Galaxies, (SEE UPDATE BELOW!) BUT I talked to Doc at Totally Stainless and he said that if 12 of us were willing to get a complete car kit, bumper to bumper he would make the bolt and they would then be available. These are “black” stainless! That’s right, the right color, but no more RUST! Price? Well the average bumper to bumper kit for a Mousetang, excuse me Mustang is $250-$300 bucks. Sound like a lot? Well that is close to 800 fasteners including the bumper bracket bolts washers and nuts, bumper bolts and nuts, the interior small head screws, all the screws and nuts that hold the dash together, the screws that hold the accelerator pedal to the floor, I mean, if you have a screw, they have a replacement that will NEVER rust again.
And if you really want to get cool looking you can get button hex head bolts and washers to put your fenders on, and socket heads, 12 point nuts, with 170,000 pounds of tensile strength on and on. Wing nuts, serrated flange nuts, KEP nuts, nylock nuts, acorn nuts, us lock washers, inside and outside star washers, us standard washers, fender washers, thick body mount washers, finish washers, flat head and pan head sheet metal screws, truss head screws, hex head screws, hex head bolts, indented hex head bolts, jackson undersized head screws for interior applications in size #8 & #10, on and on and on! A 128 page catalog is available by sending $4.00 to Totally Stainless, PO Box 3249, Gettysburg, PA 17325. They send you back a catalog with a $4.00 coupon that you can use off your first order. You can call them at: 800-767-4781. Or, by the way, you can also get the catalog by going to their website and downloading a copy in PDF for free HERE.
I have a copy of the catalog and managed to put a six page order with 59 separate items together for the wagon. Close to 900 stainless bolts, nuts, washers, etc...The total cost is well worth the end finished result of not having to deal with ugly rusted and corroded bolts and screws ever again! Send for a copy of the catalog and lets see if we can get them to start putting together Galaxie kits. They do them for those “other” cars. Why? Same reason as always, NUMBERS. We need to just give them an order for 12 ‘63 and or ‘64 Galaxies to get those 5/16 x 24 indented head hex bolts produced. I sure would like to see a kit available!
UPDATE! Totally Stainless is now making ALL the different 24 thread bolts for the older Galaxies in stainless. Both BLACK and grey. Doc just informed me that he will be looking into doing kits for the 1963 and 1964 Galaxie very soon.
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