Ford rip off of the consumer
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,138
Likes: 2
From: North Central Florida
A lot more goes into MOST Ford nuts and bolts then you can acquire at the hardware. For one, I believe tensile strength or hardness levels are higher than 8's. There's quite a few 8.8's - 12.4's around the entire truck. Some nuts and bolts are pre-washered, built into that spin independently. Some are sent out to Henkel or Loctite to get pre-coated with Vibra Orange or Blue. There's quite a bit more involved. They're special purpose and it all doesn't happen at just one place.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 3,248
Likes: 2
From: Rochester, NY, USA
A lot more goes into MOST Ford nuts and bolts then you can acquire at the hardware. For one, I believe tensile strength or hardness levels are higher than 8's. There's quite a few 8.8's - 12.4's around the entire truck. Some nuts and bolts are pre-washered, built into that spin independently. Some are sent out to Henkel or Loctite to get pre-coated with Vibra Orange or Blue. There's quite a bit more involved. They're special purpose and it all doesn't happen at just one place.
Another big difference is the finish applied to the fasteners. Automotive specs are much tougher - especially for corrosion resistance - that the stuff you'll find in your local hardware store. Sure it may look the same, but just try to loosen a hardware store fastener after a year in road salt - if it's even still there.
Finally, since most automotive fasteners are somewhat specialized in design (as noted above) and used only by the automotive manufacturers, you run into the "low volume = high price" issue. Add to that the inventory carrying costs and you have a pretty expensive fastener. Oh, and I'd be willing to bet that the fasteners you're talking about were special ordered for the customer, so add special shipping.
Make a little bit more sense now?