[Public-list] stainless hardware

[Gordon White]

This is a warning I am sending to both the Alberg sailboat group and the 
auto racing history group to which I belong: Ordinary stainless steel 
hardware is not to be used in highly- stressed places on either boats or 
race cars.  There may be stainless alloys that may be used in sailboat 
rigging, but ordinary stainless hardware is not strong enough.

    I just bought a couple of dozen stainless nuts and bolts from West 
Marine, of which four were so badly made the bolts would not thread into 
the nuts.  There is a lot of expensive but cheaply-made foreign 
stainless hardware being sold these days and its quality, if not its 
price, is pretty poor.

    On a boat, stainless typically does not rust, which is good, 
although it is subject to stress and other forms of corrosion.  In 
highly-stressed places like rigging, be certain to use only 
rigging-quality stainless, not the by-the-pound junk.

    On Saturday, at the Williams Grove Old Timers' old race car meet in 
Pennsylvania, I overheard a car owner saying, proudly, "I used all 
stainless hardware in restoring my car." This is a dangerous thing to 
do.  I made that mistake about 20 years ago and was lucky to correct it 
before anything broke on the track.  I twisted off the heads of a few 
bolts under torque that they should have survived.

    In stressed points on the race car always use aircraft-quality 
hardened nuts and bolts, if possible, with rolled threads.  Most 
stainless hardware is just not strong enough.  I saw Gays Biro, a very 
experienced older driver, die because, first, he assembled the 
suspension on his car badly and because he used hardware store quality 
bolts.  They broke, the car rolled and killed him at a vintage meet.

- Gordon White
Deltaville, VA