So, since I am living in a country with lots of anow and salt, rust has always been an issue for me. I started researching how to rustproof the bolts, because there is nothing worse than a rust-welded grade 10.9 bolt that had its head snapped lol.
All steel bolt rust proofing methods I’ve seen are based on creating a layer between the steel and oxygen. But the way the layer is made varies wildly:
- Oxide based coat
- Carbon based coat
- Metal based coat
- Oil based coat
- Paint based coat
For example there is a technique that is called “Oil Burn” where you get the bolt red hot and dip it into motor oil. There are various issues with this technique, which I will explain in a later post.
With your suggestions I will make a spreadsheet with various pros and cons listed and will share with the community.
As to prove I am serious about this, here are my current experiments:
Before:
After:
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My father in law showed me that a bit of copper paste applied to the threading of the bolts everytime you change the wheels keeps most of the rust out. We change 2x a year. Never had rust locked bolt since I use this method.
Yes, it’s an effective anti-seize method. There are multiple cons with it due to it being somewhat messy to apply and needing to reapply it after unbolting. Also it protects the threads from rust/seize but not the head