Common Nuts/bolts For The Rx

[ChrisKaye]

Hi all,

With all the various tinkering I've been doing with my Lex, does anyone know of or can recommend a box of of various common sized bolts/nuts for the RX?

If the weather holds this weekend, I want to replace my transmission cooler tube assembly but due to previous crap mechanics and corrosion, most of the bolts that hold the plastic under tray onto the car are either missing or in a really bad way.

Unhelpfully, Toyota in their wisdom decided to use various sizes of bolts for the under tray and it is proving painful looking each one up in the parts schematics, cross referencing the bolt part number with the electronic parts catalogue, then creating a list to either find each individual bolt online or buy from Toyota parts counter as they only sell them singly and aren't cheap for this sort of thing!

Mechanics must be able to buy big kits full of fittings, so what can anyone recommend?

Thanks in advance!

[vrodman]

Hi Chris

I use Falcon Workshop Supplies for ss nuts, bolts, washers, screws etc - cheaper than cheap but not sure if they do multipacks of common sizes. They have thousands of items listed so maybe have a search through. I bought the bolts for my roof bar blanking kit rather than buy Lexus ones - about a tenth of the price !

I would think that everything would be metric on a Lexus but I don't know for sure. I'm also renovating my '81 TR7 DHC which has a mix of UNC, UNF and metric and Falcon have been able to supply everything I need. They also have stuff like flanged bolts which manufacturers seem to use.

Cheers

Dan

[ChrisKaye]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the tip!

Would SS bolts be a better choice that ones with Zinc ie: less likely to rust over time?

Thanks,

Chris.

[Geryatrix]

I've done a lot of mods to my boats used on the sea and wouldn't think of using anything but stainless steel bolts for long life and ease of removal.

[ChrisKaye]

Excellent, thanks Roger!

If they are good on boats, they should stand up to road use!

[kevmo]

When using stainless to stainless, ie. Nut & bolt are both stainless remember to put a little copper grease on the threads or they will pick up and you will have trouble getting them apart again later.

[ChrisKaye]

I was thinking of replacing the few original under tray bolts left with Stainless, as this is going into the chassis/frame, will I need to worry about binding? I was probably going to give them a little white grease treatment to keep em clean.

Unfortunately I have 4-5 snapped bolts (I only did 1 guv!) and after moving all 3 front under tray pieces, I have 3 x crusty original bolts, 1 snapped one, about 5 cable tie remains and 3 x 2" coach screws some lazy arsed mechanic "improvised" fixings with.

Funny enough, the missus has been learning to do acrylic nails (for fun rather than as a business/trade) and she's had ago filling in some of the under tray cracks on a piece, which has come out brilliantly! - Every cloud....!

Just going to order some new drill bits and a centre punch to go with my screw extractor and pray I can get the old snapped bolt remains out...! Any tips greatfully received guys....

[Geryatrix]

I've always found a helpful method of preparing to remove sheared bolts is to heat the bolts either with a blowtorch or a cigarette lighter or even the wife's hairdryer, and then with an aerosol can of 3 in 1 oil or WD40, give the bolt a good squirt then leave for a few hours, this should help with the freeing process.

Best of luck.