Down to nuts and bolts....

Jeff_Lee · Post by **Jeff_Lee** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:44 am

I am cleaning and painting many of the nuts and bolts for the final reassembly of my M38.
In a grab-bag of unmarked fasteners (yeah, I know, must have lost my Sharpie pen that day...) I found eight nice 1/4-20 5/8" slotted round head BRASS screws. I discovered they were brass when I hit the heads on a wire wheel to remove three layers of paint.... the bottom layer being OD..
They may be from some of the "custom accessories" added by PO's, or maybe there is a special place on a 1951 M38 for brass fasteners! I took a quick scan of the Part Manual, but didn't see any Brass screws that were that big.

Any ideas or suggestions? If not, I may use them for attaching my Guide A-2 reflectors...

See photo next post

Jeff

Jeff_Lee · Post by **Jeff_Lee** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:50 am

MarkR1951M38 · Post by **MarkR1951M38** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:24 am

I used brass screws on the dash plate holding in the high beam indicator and the night lights. Also for the light switch mounting.

Post by **wesk** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:57 am

per ORD 9 Hi beam Ind. screws are steel 8-32 and the Main Lite Switch are steel 10-32.

Jeff, I would suggest that you just lay them aside and as you re-assemble the jeep use the ORD 9 as your guide and that way the correct hardware will end up where it belongs. If you do not come across any requirement for 1/4"-20 brass round head slotted screws just toss them in the spare hardware box. The reflectors called for Steel 1/4"-20 screws in the ORD 9.

It is not uncommon over a half century for many folks who had their hands on your jeep to substitute a few fasteners with whatever they had on hand.

Bobber · Post by **Bobber** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:13 pm

My arctic top came with brass screws in the door handles. Didn't see any brass screws when I did my off frame restoration.

Jeff_Lee · Post by **Jeff_Lee** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:42 pm

Thanks Gentlemen!

I put the 1/4-20 brass in a 'special place'.
I did also notice the little brass screws used in the instrument panel. What I found interesting was, they were all brass, except for 2 of them, which were steel... Because they were painted, I didn't notice that most were brass in disassembly. And I'm pretty sure I was the first one to ever take apart the panel, as the gauges were all original and untouched,
Upon reassembly, I went looking in the ORD_9 for the special place the two steel screws went... there must have been a good reason for the use of two steel screws amongst a sea of brass!! Right??
Well, the ORD-9 lists all the little screws as "cd or zn" plated, which would not be on brass.
I guess the day they made 23923, brass screws were en vogue.

Post by **wesk** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:53 pm

66 years to swap parts. Trust me you are not the first one to unscrew anything on your dash. As I posted above:

It is not uncommon over a half century for many folks who had their hands on your jeep to substitute a few fasteners with whatever they had on hand.

skyjeep50 · Post by **skyjeep50** » Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:56 am

Another place brass is used is brass nuts for the exhaust manifold.

dpcd67 · Post by **dpcd67** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 3:15 pm

I use a lot of brass, stainless, and grade 8 bolts and screws in place of the old rusted out ones. Once painted, no one knows and they will be there when the rest of the jeep is rusted away. I can't help it.

mdainsd · Post by **mdainsd** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:09 pm

Im with you. Replace old rusty with new, but closest match possible. I can't help myself either. But I don't submit my jeep to scrutiny by the Jeep police either, so who's going to complain?

The exception being the MB. It was fairly unmolested so I am lucky to have a vast majority of its original hardware and it will remain with that Jeep.