Correct Bolt and hardware finish
 

Hey guys, does anyone know of the correct finish for the main chassis bolts on a 428 street car? what are your thoughts on the bolt finishes for restorations? I see that most of the bolts have a gray cast to them: where they zinc when new or something flatter?

I know Drew Serb sells replacement bolt kit but is that acceptable for a restoration or should the original bolts be preserved and refinished

Whenever possible original hardware should be retained. Typically the hardware used on the original Cobras were either Cadmium 1 (clear Cadmium) or black oxide. Cadmium 1 is silver in appearance. Finding sources to have Cadmium plating are becoming harder and harder to find because of the chemicals used in the process. Zinc plating has become an alternative to Cadmium plating but there is a noticeable difference in the finish.

You may want to bring in a concours judge or at least network with folks that have done this.
Nobody knows everything but it’s a million dollar car.
Get ahold of credible folks as a go to.

MJ72. Not sure where you are or where you are going with your restoration process. John is correct most cadmium with a silver look. He is a great resource. Jeff is correct also you should seek experience help like the two mentioned. You need British Standard hardware with Aerotite nuts in general. I doubt Drew supplies that level of exactness, to nut and bolt buying customers, but he could. We have exchanged hardware and parts over the last several decades to complete high level. /super high level restorations. About 45 years ago I parted out 2 427 Cobras and harvested all the hardware from each, along with the rest of the removable-useable components. I could check but both were less than 10,000 miles. The quality, grade- hardness made them very resistant to corrosion. If you are considering restoring the bolts ,your car must have seen a hard life. I would rate the condition of the original bolt sets harvested at very slightly less than excellent as good or better than any bolts that I judged on concours prepped car at SAAC conventions for many years. If you want brand new bolts from the AC factory, 1968-9 I can supply those in addition. I hope you must understand your restoration hobby is going to be very expensive. A private email if interested.

Per another thread the op is a curios observer and not the owner. The owner is seeking the advice of the few trained professionals. Curiosity is ok but I think I'd keep the tools locked up. :)

Op you might want to ask future questions in that framework. People here are, like I did before, detecting a high degree of unpreparedness. A professional cobra restorer wouldn't be asking these questions, especially here, and I think are trying ever so gently to prevent botching up a valuable car.

Absolutely none of the shiny bolts you need are at home depot or auto zone. And those that have them are a closed community.

But it does beg the question: Why? The car in its current form is worth more than restored. Unless it's really a basket case most would leave it alone. And even a knowledgeable owner would be a fool to risk aluminum body changes without tons of experience

Thanks for the replies and invested concern. You wont hear “ Yesterday after the ninth hole we swapped the gulf clubs for body hammers and went about trying to reshape the tail lights and I think we got them squared away!” As some other member stated I am just an enthusiast with a friend who has some special cars. This is just curiosity and bench talk that includes cobras in general. We look at pictures, compare chassis numbers and their restorations, and who is doing what on theirs. Its also interesting to see about all the fakes, counterfeits, scams, and who screwed who. I never knew their could be such goin on with just under 1000 cars. I have found that very interesting. Thanks to you guys we are learning quite alot. GT40 knowledge and mustangs as well are part of our discovery and bench talk, but I leave those questions to those forums specifically. I enjoy learning, being well informed, and being able to help others. Rest assured that no-one other than a top professional would do any work to the car or any of the other cars in the collection. I will be sure to frame each post with “Research only, no cobras will be harmed with info given in this post.”Thanks guys!

Back to the discovery, if we may. I see that 2196 was restored up in Ontario. In the photos of the resto the bolts on that car appear to be restored in Zinc as they are very shiny compared to the flat gray cad I see on the originals. I know the car is very special piece, but im curious as to why they went with the zinc finish and not something more original? Edit: I see now that it was a test car and not a production car, not sure if that would make a difference in the fasteners used.

Cad plating is very hard to get done today and small batch is even worse. The waste disposal cost is 90% of the job costs I am told by a plater. You cannot open a cad plating plant in the US that can operate at a profit now.

California is pretty much putting plating out of business. This is just the latest

https://calmatters.org/environment/2...e-plating-ban/

A friend of mine in Colorado did antique restorations on things like old cash registers and he had a plating business. Man those chemicals were nasty. He passed away a few years ago but I think his garage might have qualified as a EPA super site.

Ha ha!

Of course knowing how to do it is different from doing it and it's good to see someone wanting to at least dig a little into the processes.

Yes exactly! I really like to dig in deep to things and thats a big reason why we have so much fun bench racing and of course the conversation during the spirited driving of new and vintage performance cars. I like to read about ultra marathons and Iron man competitions. I will never do either!