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The underbody ones are also a bit rusted but much less than yours and I have removed those a few times so might be related to that. Want to treat those too!
I have purchased some marine stainless steel M10 bolt to replace these but not sure what tool to remove the OEM ones? T50?
Interesting. It's true that 5 years of salty South FL air can do some damage, but it does seem excessive. Was looking at the installation instructions and seems the impacted parts are the bolts and nuts and the separator (E on the diagram below). So, I am planning to replace the hardware with new corrosion-resistant ones and treat and weatherproof the separators. Fun little weekend project. @GavinC if it's not much to ask can you take a pic of yours, just want to see how good looks like.
Mine are slightly corroded as well (and I have never driven it really in salty conditions... but it’s parked outside in the PNW).
I tried buying replacement stainless bolts on Amazon (same button head etc) -- then read that they were not as strong so ditched the idea. So I was just going to leave them as is. Mine are about 50% as rusted as yours.
McMaster Carr sell every bolt you could ever want. I'll pull one of the rusty roof rack ones and then figure out the sizing and strength requirements and order from those guys. I'll do the same with the underbody protection bolts as well.
McMaster Carr sell every bolt you could ever want. I'll pull one of the rusty roof rack ones and then figure out the sizing and strength requirements and order from those guys. I'll do the same with the underbody protection bolts as well.
Yep, exactly where I was headed to. It’s my go to for any hardware needs. Excellent and fast service too.
McMaster Carr sell every bolt you could ever want. I'll pull one of the rusty roof rack ones and then figure out the sizing and strength requirements and order from those guys. I'll do the same with the underbody protection bolts as well.
Belmetric has been my bolt vendor of choice for years. I'm adding McMaster to my vendor list.
McMaster Carr sell every bolt you could ever want. I'll pull one of the rusty roof rack ones and then figure out the sizing and strength requirements and order from those guys. I'll do the same with the underbody protection bolts as well.
Hardware overhaul completed! I took it apart and treated all the roof rack hardware (front and rear, though rear looked way better as they are covered by the rack). Also did the two front undershield bolts.
All bolts are 10.9 grade and the roof rack ones seemed black oxide coated while the undershield ones seemed painted. I found potential replacements for the roof rack ones online, but they were also black oxide coated, so would probably turn the same if not treated. For the undershield ones I wasn’t able to find similarly spec’d ones (the diameter of the head is bigger than what I found online). Ultimately, the rust was superficial, hence I felt comfortable just treating them and putting them back on.
The separators where painted (but one face on the threaded ones, the one that was rusted, did not seem to have been painted, maybe that side was supposed to be facing inward against the rack).
We’ll see if this does better than the original finish, but definitely improved the view from my home office window (it overlooks the driveway where the car is parked!)
Starting point:
After an Evaporust bath:
After painting:
Installed back (using the glove finger and masking tape tricks to avoid chipping the paint with the socket):
