408 Door Hinge Bolts

[Justin]

During a nice little early spring cruise in my 408 one of its exhaust manifolds started blowing like a machine gun. Removing the manifolds back in the garage I thought it might be smart to also machine the heads so the new gaskets and manifolds will fit snug. Once the heads were stripped I thought it might be even smarter to redo the entire engine. Once the entire engine was in a million pieces my fellow painter convinced me it would be the very smartest to now repaint the entire car as it was only a real beauty from more than 10 feet away.

Seemingly smart me, now facing the task to fiddle the entire car back together I come across a lot of screws which do not quite fit the new looks of it. The worse ones are the screws for the door hinges. They look absolutely sorry for themselves. Does anyone know which type of screws will go into the A-pillars and doors? As the 408 and I live in Germany it is quite a task to find somebody who knows about imperial bolts.

If anybody else is in the need, I found complete stainless steel kits for the 313 and 318 Engines at AlloyBolts. Even if they deny still selling them, with a little sweet talking they will.

Thanks a lot for your help. It is much appreciated by the car an me.

Please don‘t mind the mess in my garage. It is usually tidy and all up to a Feng Shui energy level, just not with me around for longer than 5 minutes.

[Steve Phillips]

Hi

I am currently working on a customers 407, so I'll make the assumption that the hinges on an 8 will be the same, on the 7 the A post screws are 5/16 BSF "British standard fine" countersunk,

However BSF are very expensive compared to UNF for example so we have replaced the BSF with UNF on the A post side, all the screws have nuts on the back and are not into captive nuts so it's not a problem,

I haven't got as far as the door side screws yet but would assume they will also be BSF, I can confirm this tomorrow once I'm back at work, and these do screw into captive nuts so really need to be kept as BSF,

You could use M8 screws on the A post side as 5/16" and 8mm are virtually identical in size, but we found the countersunk heads don't sitting well in the hinge, so you would either need stainless screws and machine the heads to suit, or redrill the countersunk in the hinge,

Hope some of that helps

Steve

[Justin]

Hi Steve,

thanks a lot for your very comprehensive answer. It is most helpful. I'll hit the local hardware store for some stainless M8's and nuts tomorrow. Knowing the screws for the door side to be 5/16 BSF also helps a lot. I didn't even know what to search for.

Kind regards,

Justin

[David C]

Something like this may be suitable and retain some sort of originality:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196879369...Bk9SR-Cf3KuTZg

I prefer hex head to Pozi for threads that will be quite tight.

I try quite hard to keep the engine threads on the V8s UNF / UNC and the bodywork BSF / BSW. It keeps the tool count down and saves the next chap guessing. Hardly an issue with hinge bolts as they are rarely undone, but we all have different outlets for OCD.

[Steve Phillips]

Imperial screws are normally available in either cross head or slotted which imo looks slightly better and more original than hex screws,

And black / self colour fixings will start to rust almost instantly, whereas zinc plated will last several years before starting to corrode,

Everything is personal choice however and there's not really a right or wrong, it's what works for you.

Steve

[Justin]

Hi David an Steve,

Thanks a lot for the link to the screws. I had the same thoughts as you two Cross heads would look nice and original hex heads are nicer to tighten down. My final game plan was to use Stainless M8‘s with cross heads on the A pillar. These will be very visible opening the door and can be tightened from the back as Steve suggested. On the door site I‘ll go with the hex heads as they go into the captive nuts and are less visible.

Once the screws arrived and I managed to install the doors in a half way presentable manner I‘ll post a pictured the looks.

Thank you both a lot for your help on the screws. I‘d have never figured out the sizes by my self.