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killroy · 09-09-04, 04:25 PM

Quality steel bolts are made from alloys that are designed for more than just high tensile strength.

While some grades of stainless do have high tensile strength, the other material properties are not as good.

Carrol Smith wrote a couple of books about choosing the correct bolts and other hardware for a race car. That will have the full story. I think it's called Prepare to Win, or Design to Win, something like that.

That should be required reading for any "kit car" builder, it will tell you how to find and fix the poorly designed use of fasteners that most kits have.

I like to design for safety under normal conditions, then choose which part should fail in an accident. That is why lots of race cars have shear plates, and making them stronger is wrong.

09-09-04, 04:25 PM	#5 (permalink)
killroy A Tenth Join Date: Jul 2004 GT40: Silicon Valley Posts: 121 Rep Power: 6	Re: Stainless suspension bolts ? Quality steel bolts are made from alloys that are designed for more than just high tensile strength. While some grades of stainless do have high tensile strength, the other material properties are not as good. Carrol Smith wrote a couple of books about choosing the correct bolts and other hardware for a race car. That will have the full story. I think it's called Prepare to Win, or Design to Win, something like that. That should be required reading for any "kit car" builder, it will tell you how to find and fix the poorly designed use of fasteners that most kits have. I like to design for safety under normal conditions, then choose which part should fail in an accident. That is why lots of race cars have shear plates, and making them stronger is wrong.