Mother Of All Whore Threads Non-VIP Edition v.1

EDIT: TL/DR - I was able to acquire some bolts I had a hard time finding.


So, this might seem insignificant to most normal humans, but today I basically struck gold — and by gold, I mean a bag of oddly specific bolts that only a small, strange cult of 3/S owners (like myself) would ever care about.

I was working with a guy out in Oklahoma who parts out old 3/S cars, hunting for a very particular bolt. There are only five of these on the entire car, and as far as I can tell, they were used exclusively on the 3000GTs as I never found them on any of the Stealths I've worked on. To the uninitiated, that probably sounds like a very boring scavenger hunt. To me, it was like Indiana Jones chasing the Ark of the Covenant, but with more spreadsheets and fewer Nazis.

Normally, I’d just pull up Mitsubishi’s parts software (I have bootleg copies of CAPS and ASA, don’t judge), order what I need, and move on. But no matter how deep I dug, I couldn’t find these specific bolts. Every search turned up their less-desired cousins — bolts that work, but not the Holy Grail bolts. And of course, “almost” doesn’t cut it for my obsessive brain.

At this point, you’re probably asking: “Why is this idiot writing a thousand words about some dumb Mitsubishi bolts… on a Honda forum?” The answer: there’s nothing special about them, except that they showed up in my mailbox today and made me way happier than any grown adult should admit.

Anyway, here’s the deal: they’re M6x1.00 low-profile shoulder bolts with a 10mm x 4mm shoulder, are 25mm long, and driven by a 5mm Allen. (Pause for applause.) The reason I wanted them is for my Stealth’s front splitter — the car sits low enough that I occasionally scrape while entering/exiting parking lots with a steep drop-off (which we'll refer to as a 'dramatic terrain change'), and chews up the less-desired cousin bolts, the hex head shoulder bolts that are my current bolts and makes them a nightmare to remove if ground down too far. These new bolts could actually solve that problem… if I could get 17 of them. That’s basically four cars’ worth of unicorn hardware. Over the past year, I had acquired 10 locally from 2 different cars . . . so, I only needed 7 more to complete the task.

I tried everything — searched for third-party replacements, reached out to specialty bolt manufacturers, even asked for quotes. Most laughed me off politely. One said they’d do it… but the setup cost alone was $1,000. Imagine paying a grand for bolts. My OCD considered it. My wallet filed for divorce.

So, I reached out to some parts guys. Most refused — too much hassle, too much rust risk (they had a tendency to break). But today, the seas parted and a package arrived. I thought I was getting five bolts (as we never talked about numbers and the price was only $10). Inside? Fifteen. Fifteen glorious, magical, perfect bolts (although, a little dirty and aged but perfect enough for me). Enough to finally outfit my splitter like some kind of hardware god.

Insignificant? Maybe. But today, these bolts made me feel like I’d just won the lottery. A very nerdy, oddly specific, mechanical lottery. Picture of my not-so-ill-gotten booty:
IMG_0154.jpeg
This is what the whole fuss was over to appease my OCD. And, why you've now wasted 10mins of your day, reading about something you probably don't care about. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
 
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Didnt read the whole thing but those look oddly similar to bolts used on jeep renegades .
 
Janz3n said:
Didnt read the whole thing but those look oddly similar to bolts used on jeep renegades .
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But, that means you missed all of the great humor I added . . .

They may be; but, my searches didn't turn up any parallels. I came across a few for motorcycles that were similar but I couldn't get dimensions on them to know if they would work for my application or not, so I didn't buy any to verify. And, I could've been searching in the wrong places too.
 
AlmosN8kd said:
EDIT: TL/DR - I was able to acquire some bolts I had a hard time finding.

Anyway, here’s the deal: they’re M6x1.00 low-profile shoulder bolts with a 10mm x 4mm shoulder, are 25mm long, and driven by a 5mm Allen. (Pause for applause.) The reason I wanted them is for my Stealth’s front splitter — the car sits low enough that I occasionally scrape while entering/exiting parking lots with a steep drop-off (which we'll refer to as a 'dramatic terrain change'), and chews up the less-desired cousin bolts, the hex head shoulder bolts that are my current bolts and makes them a nightmare to remove if ground down too far. These new bolts could actually solve that problem… if I could get 17 of them. That’s basically four cars’ worth of unicorn hardware. Over the past year, I had acquired 10 locally from 2 different cars . . . so, I only needed 7 more to complete the task.

Insignificant? Maybe. But today, these bolts made me feel like I’d just won the lottery. A very nerdy, oddly specific, mechanical lottery. Picture of my not-so-ill-gotten booty:
View attachment 68203
This is what the whole fuss was over to appease my OCD. And, why you've now wasted 10mins of your day, reading about something you probably don't care about. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you have looked on McMasterCarr website? they have a ton of stuff there....I quickly looked for a min or two and found something similar....
 
Yes, I did, they didn’t have what I was looking for in the specs I needed.
 
Queue the custom bolt maker for restorations. Turn those things to spec, coat them and sell.

Let’s try to find obscure parts for old cars online.
 
i definitely would have taken one to the machinists on campus and asked if we could make them. Knowing the machinists they'd take it as some kind of challenge and go for it
 
Scan one and then have it 3D printed in metal? Like ethlar said a machinist could prob replicate it I took some stuff to a college before to do something similar.
 
webby said:
so dodge or mitsubishi can't even sell you those bolts?
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I could never find an actual part number for the bolts to reference and therefore order, it's like they forgot to include it in the parts search programs.

FooBird said:
Queue the custom bolt maker for restorations. Turn those things to spec, coat them and sell.

Let’s try to find obscure parts for old cars online.
Click to expand...

So, the initial cost to make these would be about $1000 because of the machine setup time (again, based on the one quote I received); so, I'd have to buy thousands of these bolts to even remotely get close to an ROI and I don't know of anyone else who has looked for them to do what I am. Perhaps they just haven't thought of it; or, like me, they don't really discuss their ideas online until after their done.

ethlar said:
i definitely would have taken one to the machinists on campus and asked if we could make them. Knowing the machinists they'd take it as some kind of challenge and go for it
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If I had access to something like that, I would've considered it; but, I don't. Was either local or online resources. Admittedly, I didn't put a ton of effort into this but did spend more time than any sane human should when trying to source a set of bolts. In the end, what I figured would happen did, I was able to get them from a guy who deals in used parts.

webby said:
Scan one and then have it 3D printed in metal? Like ethlar said a machinist could prob replicate it I took some stuff to a college before to do something similar.
Click to expand...

Admittedly, I didn't consider this option. I don't have access to 3D scanning/printing equipment at the moment. I am hoping to buy a 3D printer in the next year or two but there just never seems to be enough money to go around for things. :( So, it's on hold until financially affordable.
 
AlmosN8kd said:
Admittedly, I didn't consider this option. I don't have access to 3D scanning/printing equipment at the moment.
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So I just drove like an hour away to one of the larger universities that had the capability. They do the scanning, printing etc for you. The cost was next to nothing for the university to do it.
 
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