Anything good for protecting bolts from corrosion?

Hi everyone,

I'm getting ready to reassemble the suspension on my Rabbit and knowing that I'm pretty much turning every nut, bolt, and screw on it here I want to be proactive here and try and make it easier to free everything up again in the future if I have to!

I AM replacing any fasteners I can with stainless or zinc coated where I can, but there are some studs that are welded to the Unibody for suspension component attachment that have me a little worried.

Like the studs that hold the rear beam trailing arm to the chassis. Those scared the bejesus out of me when I was removing the rear beam because I was deathly afraid of snapping one! Thankfully they look to be in good shape but I want to make sure I preserve them.

So besides the obvious which is using anti-seize on all of my threads, is there anything else I can use on exposed threads and bolt heads that will protect them?

How about something like this Boeshield T-9 protectant which seems to be similar to the wax coating used by manufacturers during the assembly process?

I'm sure the wax would help protect it, but am I just creating a bigger hassle with removing nuts and bolts afterward because of it?

Is naval jelly or some kind of oil a better solution?

A durable waxy coating works very well to keep bolts and such intact. If it's a thick coating, you might have to fight a little to get a socket on the bolts later on, but I've never had even the heavy, waxy 3M coatings cause problems with removing a bolt.

Stainless sucks. They gall up and seize worse than trying to deal with rust.

Suspension bolts that run through bushings need antiseize or grease on the shaft of the bolt, since they will rust into the steel sleeve in the bushing.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Stainless sucks. They gall up and seize worse than trying to deal with rust.

+100,000,000

A little oil leak usually does wonders

But like they suggested, the waxy stuff works well.

I had one of those studs break on my VW. I had to go inside and cut an access hole just above the studs and after drilling out the broken stud I inserted a bolt from above. Wax is good. There are some spray on coatings that work well too.

Southern Arizona.

Jumper K. Balls wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Stainless sucks. They gall up and seize worse than trying to deal with rust.

+100,000,000

Also stainless is much weaker than steel at normal temperatures.

How about paint? I'm relying on Chassis Saver for this sort of thing on the truck. Granted, it will need to be wire-wheeled off the threads, but I'm okay with that in most cases.

Bobzilla wrote: Southern Arizona.

I'd love to steal some of your weather for the Midwest, but I don't know if you guys would want to sell that. We'll trade ya for some rain though.

jimbbski wrote: I had one of those studs break on my VW. I had to go inside and cut an access hole just above the studs and after drilling out the broken stud I inserted a bolt from above. Wax is good. There are some spray on coatings that work well too.

Ouch! Yeah I was terrified of that happening. I almost bought a much more abused gutted track car 83 GTI but the steel above the studs had about a walnut shell sized bubble of rust forming there and I figured it would need some significant patch work to be safe.

I've bought myself a bottle of copper antisieze and coat every bolt I remove. So far hasn't been enough time (or in the right place) to see rust or one stick on me but it makes me feel better and they come out easier. Also be careful about using stainless in aluminum, chemical reaction happens and sticks together

I used LPS-3 for storing a Bridgeport from advice on here, should work well as I see it. It's recommended for outdoor use also but I'm unsure if would hold up on a DD in the elements. Stored vehicle, sure.

I use anti-seize on everything unless it says dry thread or thread locker. Even the bolt shanks get coated if in a hostile environment. After twisting steel brake lines off w/ the tubing nut, inside the nut where the tube contacts the nut as well as nut threads get coated. Bleeder screw threads also.

while I know it would make it more difficult to remove later.. but does s chemical thread locker protect the threads?

In reply to mad_machine:

Not exactly but it does keep the base metal intact as long as there wasn't already rust forming under the loctite.

I second the coating the shanks in severe duty, I've seen enough seized/rusted shanks in my day. That copper crap goes on everything! Even exhaust studs cause it's supposedly rated to 2000*f. $10 got me a bottle of antisieze big enough that I think I got enough to pass down to my grandkids...I don't even have children yet.

In reply to Contradiction:

I agree I wish we could have done warm dry air here. I'm tired of cold and snow.

Bobzilla wrote: In reply to Contradiction: I agree I wish we could have done warm dry air here. I'm tired of cold and snow.

I just noticed your location so I'm preaching the choir! Yeah it amazes me how much of a difference a Southern climate makes. My cousin is a mechanic at a dealership in Vegas and he said it's amazing being able to work on a 10 year old car without a spec of rust on it. It was a huge difference for him coming from Chicago!

I use petroleum jelly on bolts that are near rubber boots like in brake calipers. For exhaust studs i use milk of magnesia. For bolts/studs aside from the above i use spend motor oil. For stuck bolts i use a propane torch and veg oil/acetone (roughly 50/50) as a penetrating spray.

DIY or die

I believe the answer is "Live in the SW states of Arizona, New Mexico, and W. Texas"

Metric blue fasteners. They're pricy...

the bolts came apart after 30 years and tens or even hundreds of thousands of miles of daily driver use, they will come apart again after a few years of light duty use without doing anything special.

A good coating of antiseize I would think would be more than adequate.

This is going to be a toy car from here forward, unlikely to see salt again more than maybe once or twice by accident.

LPS-3

This a "self healing", marine-grade waxy coating. Works excellently.

CRC Marine Corrosion Inhibitor. Buy at a boat store… around $9 a can.

Per Schroeder wrote: CRC Marine Corrosion Inhibitor. Buy at a boat store… around $9 a can.

This stuff works great. And if you need larger quantities, it's the same stuff as CRC SP400. You can take that stuff and brush it on or thin it with acetone and spray it with a garden sprayer. I picked up a 5 gallon thing of it a couple years ago and will probably never run out...