When I work on my car I almost always replace fasteners whether they need it or not. That’s fine… I’m obsessive about restoring and maintaining my car… everything has to be perfect when I put it back together otherwise it is not worth doing in my book. What surprises me is how mechanics or maybe past owners can put back fasteners that clearly need replacing.
What we have in the above image is one of the allen bolts (socket head screw if you want to be correct) that connects the seat rail to the bottom of the seat. Allen bolts are often softer than the key used to turn them so they can easily round out inside. When they round out you can extract them by cutting a slot in the top and using a screwdriver, as done here. But once you extract them this way there’s no excuse to put it back like that!
Seriously, who puts a fastener like this back on the car? This isn’t a cheap old car… this is a Ferrari… give it some respect. I have found a number of botched fasteners while working on my car but the most were when I took out my seats. The seats had been poorly re-dyed at some point so I think it is fair to assume that the shop that re-dyed the seats are the culprits for these particular fasteners.
A new M6 socket head screw of the correct type costs 20¢ from BoltDepot.com… The equivalent, at regular labour rates, of around 5.76 seconds of work. Don’t have them to hand? These stripped when removing the seats and re-dying takes several days so no excuse there.
JUST RENEW THE FASTENERS – THEY ARE NOT EXPENSIVE!
Disclaimer: This website describes the restoration work I perform on my car and only my car. I am not a professional mechanic. The website content is presented for entertainment purposes only and should not by seen as any kind of advice, information, instruction or guidance for working on any other car. The opinions stated here are my own and no-one else’s.
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