I spent a number of weeks working on a '72 Pantera in Surrey. I was astonished at how barbaric the UK is when it comes to individuals working on their own cars. Given that seemingly every third person in England is their own small sports car manufacturer, I would have expected to find hardware, tools, and auto parts practically growing on trees.
Instead, I found it next to impossible to even find metric nut and bolts; the only source for miles around was a 15-minute drive, and all they had was Chinese-made Grade Zilch junk, sold in blister packs, for about 10 pounds for a half-dozen nuts and bolts, of which a good 10% were defective.
And forget about SAE hardware. You might as well be looking for unicorn horns or something.
Eventually, I had to fly over with a whole suitcase full of nuts and bolts, both metric and SAE, just to get the damn job done. I had to do the same thing when working on another Pantera outside of Paris.
I live in a medium-sized town in California, halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco, with a population of about 100,000, in a very ordinary tract home development. If I pick up a rock, wind up really hard, and throw it as hard as I can, I can hit a wholesale hardware company that sells cad-plated nuts and bolts in bulk, and tools. How you guys can exist over there without that sort of thing, and yet still have so many fantastic cars on the road boggles my mind.
Fortunately, you have the interweb over there. :laugh:
If McMaster-Carr won't play ball with you, here is an excellent alternative:
Bolt Depot - Nuts and Bolts, Screws and Fasteners online
Here is another one:
Industrial Fastener Supplier Stainless Steel, Specialty, Standard, and Precision Fasteners
They've got everything, their prices are reasonable, service is terrific, what more could you ask? :thumbsup:
With respect to your specific question, I'm sure with enough searching you can find what you need in the UK, but at least you have Bolt Depot as a backup.
Remember that bolt strength ratings are different between SAE and Metric. SAE bolts used in automobiles are normally Grade 5, or Grade 8, with the latter being stronger, but less ductile. These correspond roughly to Metric grade 8.8 and 12.9, respectively. However, there are zillions of different types of nuts and bolts, depending on the application. Here's a mind-numbing listing of the SAE bolt specs:
American Fastener - ASTM, SAE, and ISO Grade Markings
and a roughly analogous listing for metric fasteners:
American Fastener - Metric Sockets, Bolts, Screws, and Nuts
Legendary mechanic and author Carroll Smith (who was the Team Manager for Shelby's GT40 team, coincidentally) wrote the definitive work on fasteners for racing cars, called "Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook". It's available from Amazon for under $15:
Amazon.com: Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop): Carroll Smith: Books
In case that awoke your inner engineer and you felt the need for even more information about fasteners, the "Fastener Design Manual" is available for free download from NASA:
Fastener Design Manual
Not as colorful or entertaining as Smith's book, but interesting nonetheless.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on! :thumbsup:
