AMK bolt kits?

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

When I purchased the 72 Q vert it came with a full AMK bolt kit. He had dome some assembly of the suspension so those were in place. I purchased the 73 vert and thought I would use the fender bolts and some of the hood latch and ones in the front of the car to spruce up after I had stripped, blasted and painted or phosphate coated the brackets. I was shocked at the difference between the original and the AMK bolts. none of the maker marks are the same and some are different lengths. They are in the individual labeled bags so I know I don't have the wrong ones says the part numbers for D3Z etc on each bag and tells what it is for and they are labeled AMK Products.

I am for sure going to save all the originals, strip, clean and get plated. It is much cheaper to get plated than the kits are. They barrel plate bolts and nuts and small brackets with zinc and do what ever chromate color you need, clear or yellow, black. It is not labor intensive if you give them clean glass beaded parts to work with. Do they not take points from you concourse guys when you use the AMK bolts?

This is not a show car but like to keep things original when there is not an added cost.

I see differences between the 72 parts car I have and my 73 in the makers marks. I am sure Ford jumped around to save a penny here and there to different cold head shops.

I would think it would be an issue if AMK makes the bolts using someone else's maker mark or do they buy them all?

I should take some pics of the shock mount bolts and nuts the ones that go into the shock tower and hold the cowl brace and the shock mount. The bolts look nothing like the original and neither do the nuts. All of the pointed self threaders that hold things like the inner fender splash guards and cold air intake to the air cleaner are longer than original. The fender bolts have completely different markings and look.

Have others noticed this or did I get a bum set. They all have the numbers for 73 on the packs I have used. Not going to replace except under hood where you can see and maybe trunk.

David

 

[jeff8877]

David,

I have noticed the same thing on all Mustangs that I have ever done. I believe the answer is that several suppliers were used for fasteners/bolts etc and they chose to reproduce one which may differ from the one on your or my car.

 

[MeZapU]

I've noticed that AMK bolts are original "esque". Close to the originals but not exact in finish, size or stampings. They are better than say an ARP bolt set, but better than nothing if you need hardware and don't want to restore or source some others.

AMK hardware is more accurate for the earlier 65-70 mustangs but our 71-73's are not given the same considerations for accuracy.