10-08-2020, 03:02 PM (This post was last modified: 10-08-2020, 03:03 PM by stuartu.)
I am moved to quote from Fowler's "Modern English Usage":
‘The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; (5) those who know and distinguish’.
I think something similar applies to the metric/imperial debate. I will declare myself as an "Imperial wherever possible" person for reasons already given by others but you might find the odd metric fastener in one or another of my Sevens. I think this puts me in group 5.
When it comes to stainless fasteners of whatever denomination I personally prefer not to use the rest of the car as a sacrificial anode. You can choose locations in the vehicle where this is unlikely to be a problem of course and obviously OK if you never drive it in the salt or wet. For an informed view of this I recommend R M E Diamant's "Rust and Rot and what to do about them", a book published at the height of the rotbox era.
Our general rule with customers' cars is that we always use Imperial for mechanical applications and in highly visible locations.
For fixing body panels, we use metric unless the customer specifies otherwise and is, of course, willing to pay the difference.
The same applies to woodscrews - high-quality slotted screws where they can be seen and Pozidrives elswhere. Again, we'll fit whatever is required to order.
Stainless nut and carbon steel stud on speedex head. I thought it was a little loose and gently touched the manifold. It fell off, followed by a minor flood!
Some cars are very confusing. Years ago I was working on a friend's Triumph Vitesse 1600 and was very puzzle trying to rebuild the front suspension until I realised it was BSF.The rest of the car was Unified. I assumed the unit was just carried over from previous models.
metric threads were fitted at the factory when the cars were new, spark plugs being the most obvious example, who cares if the bolt is metric or imperial, so long as they do the job, saying that, the vast majority of my fixings are all as they were! I hate seeing posi-drive or phillips cross-head screws, they look awful and are for the lazy/professional where speed is everything but sod the aesthetics!
I have worked on several cars where owners have mixed the correct fastenings with metric and unified threads, it is incredibly frustrating to keep trying to find the correct spanner or socket, particularly as an experienced seven owner where I know what I normally need. Obviously it is up to the individual as can be seen here there are widely differing views on what constitutes "restoration" and what constitutes "vandalism"
If you use an M6 fastener,for example, in place of 1/4 BSF the bolt will be noticeably even looser in the hole because it is smaller in diameter. One Seven I got from the USA had body fasteners that were a mix of M6 hex and 1/4 20 UNC cross slotted roofing screw with nice square nuts on them as well. No plain shank bolts anywhere!
The difference in head sizes when you go away from original I think is pretty noticeable. A haporth of tar comes to mind?...
But I used to work in the fastener industry. ....
David
I am surprised at the numbers so far that are happy with metric fasteners, for me they just don’t look right, and they aren’t right.
I have a reasonable tool kit but like using the original Austin spanners, can’t do that with metric.
I have no trouble getting BSF and imperial fasteners and don’t mind paying a bit more for them.
Not a great fan of stainless fasteners.
10-08-2020, 11:40 PM (This post was last modified: 10-08-2020, 11:54 PM by Tony Press.)
"I had 4 A7's up to last year, 3 were all BSF/ BSW but the 3rd was metric for all body fittings due to me not wanting to fork out for imperial. The landrover I have been rebuilding is a pain because it has BSF/BSW,metric and Unified. Mad!"
And the 3rd Austin 7 isn't ? What about future restorers as noted above.
Didn't Morris use British standard heads on metric threads ?
(10-08-2020, 10:40 PM)Zetomagneto Wrote: I am surprised at the numbers so far that are happy with metric fasteners, for me they just don’t look right, and they aren’t right.
I have a reasonable tool kit but like using the original Austin spanners, can’t do that with metric.
I have no trouble getting BSF and imperial fasteners and don’t mind paying a bit more for them.
Not a great fan of stainless fasteners.
The only challenge is getting proper known specification high duty fasteners for tasks like bolting the block from inside the crankcase (if you want to do that). In my experience most of the BSF socket head stuff sold on EBay as Unbrako brand is no such thing. I'll also admit to using HoloCrome M8 button socket head screws to reattach the radius arm ball joint. Again I couldn't get trusted quality in BSF.
Otherwise I stay away from metric as much as possible.
