On Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:55:17 -0500, wrote:

You should be able to do it with soft solder and a propane torch if you
use "Tinners Fluid" (acid soldering flux, available at many hardware
stores.) to get the solder to wet the steel u-bolts.

Jeff
But you need the steel CLEAN. NO ZINC.
Solder can be used on steel, copper, brass and several other metals
(including Aluminum, but soldering that stuff is no fun) - and can
solder virtually any two solderable materials to each other.

Many thanks to numerous respondents.

I'm starting to get an idea of the details ...

Wire wheel on bench grinder is likely to suffice to remove zinc, etc?

I *think* I've got a little bit of silver solder left from
AC work. Any good for copper/u-bolts??

Thx,
Willie