1960s '60 bumper mounting bolts -finish

[David Greenburg]

I have my rear bumper off, and I'm cleaning up things back there. Are the bumper mounting bolts "natural" or should they be painted for corrosion resistance? After wire brushing, its hard to tell.I'm not particularly concerned about originality under there. If they were natural and made it 65 years, I'll leave them be. I'm in a low-rust climate and as a fan of waterless washes, the car almost never gets wet.

[Michael Petti]

Unless car in climate controlled garage there will be humidity and condensation. I am a fan of stainless steel nuts and bolts. Except for road dirt they will be like new if you have to take them off.

[Roger Zimmermann]

When some strength is required, stainless steel bolts are not a good choice. On my cars, I let zinc plate the original bolts and nuts.

[Carfreak]

Perhaps have the original hardware plated (zinc dichromate?) then use RPM as protection to preserve the condition.

We live in a rust belt state and our vehicles that aren't driven in the snow & crap stay in good condition.  With your more temperate region they should last decades. 

[David Greenburg]

Sounds like I should put some kind of finish on them. I'm not sure there are any "retail" metal shops around me that would do a small batch of hardware ; it might be more cost effective to buy some new hardware.   

[59-in-pieces]

David,

What motivated you to worry about how pretty your bumper bolts are.

I agree with Roger, if you gotta change them, zinc plate them (small batch pricey) - no S/S - no dichromate (poor mans bright Cadmium look, not OEM).

If you're not going for points or an OEM look (bolt head manufacturer pattern)- they are standard sizes and can be bought new - zinc plated, for cheap (you are not a guy who has impressed me as a spendthrift).

Have fun,
Steve B.

[David Greenburg]

Steve:

That's pretty much what I'm concluding. No reason not to use new stuff here. I'll save the big bucks  for stuff I can see.

[Carfreak]

Local to me plating shop does small batches at a reasonable price.

We periodically bring them a batch and results are always satisfactory. 

https://www.plymouthplating.com/

[59-in-pieces]

I will not say I'm lucky to live in Calif - it sucks - too old and slow to move away like we know we should..
But in So. Cal., there are a bunch of plating businesses that cater to the aircraft industry.

That being said, they do plating of all kinds and I looked around until I found one that was doing a cadmium plating job.
I asked if I could get my hardware plated and they were added to the huge aircraft job at a price of pennies.

Something to think about as a work around doing just your little pile of stuff, as a one off job.

have fun,
Steve B.

[David Greenburg]

I don't care what the bolts look like; I'm just concerned about rust. If wire-brushing the originals is good for the next 60 (or even 20) years, I'll leave it at that. But there appears to have been some kind of finish on them. Perhaps the remnants of the original cadmium, although it looks more like black paint, perhaps put there over the intervening years. While I don't think the car has been restored, it has been repainted and had some rust repair back there. Somebody might have had fun with a can of Rustoleum etc.