On Sun, 17 Feb 2013 12:53:52 +0100, Uffe Bærentsen
wrote:

Den 17-02-2013 07:28, skrev:
On Sun, 17 Feb 2013 01:19:51 +0100, Uffe Bærentsen
wrote:

Den 17-02-2013 00:13, skrev:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:01:57 +0000, David Billington
wrote:

On 16/02/13 22:37, wrote:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:36:19 +0100, Uffe Bærentsen
wrote:

Den 16-02-2013 18:35, skrev:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 15:15:43 +0100, Uffe Bærentsen
wrote:

Den 16-02-2013 07:11, skrev:

Sounds like you have seen most of what a car can throw at you.
And those are just the highlights of the last 46 years. - and not
including any of the customer vehicle issues in my life in the trade
(about 25 years) in Canada -----
Saw one funny thing on some Chevy's a while back (1995/1996).
We were told they were built in Canada and that was the reason for the
all out metric tooling and threads on those.
Gave us a hard time since all our tooling was imperial.
Do you know if that could be true?

It was this model

http://www.easyautosales.com/used-ca...-84353930.html

only line trucks with toolboxes on the side of the bed.
Made in Oshawa Ontario. Vehicles of that vintage were *******ized
metric. Some parts were imperial - because they came from the USA.
Some were metric - but not metric standard. For example, in place of
5/16" bolts they used 8mm - but 8mm SHOULD have 12 mm heads - they
used 13 because it was "close enough" to 1/2" that 1/2" wrenches would
"sorta" fit. Same with 1/4". Replaced with 6mm - which should have
10mm heads - but they used 11mm because a 7/16" wrench would "sorta"
fit. So some redneck shadetree mechanic would try to force a 1/4 unf
or 5/16 unf bolt into the hole, or nut onto the stud, and bad things
started happening real fast. Not bad on a new vehicle where the
"metric" bolts had a green colour to them - but after about 5
years?????
Was stuck with several of those *******s in a location were it was
difficult to get supplies. A 1/2" was simply not allowed if it should be
a 13mm. Rather park the vehicle for the time it took to get the right
spanner.
Standard sizes on spanners for metrical nuts a (thread/spanner)
6mm/10mm 8mm/13mm 10mm/17mm 12mm/19mm
So my guess would be that they used 12mm heads.
You have it mixed up. Standard on an 8 is 12, everywhere in the world
except north america.
I must have been buying US metric bolts then for the last 20+ years in
the UK as all the M8 hex fasteners I buy have 13mm AF heads. See

http://www.fairburyfastener.com/xdims_metric_nuts.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw#I...c_screw_thread
http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tabl...Hex_Screws.htm
http://www.bath.ac.uk/idmrc/themes/p.../bol/bol7.html
You are buying hardware store fasteners - not automotive/industrial
fasteners.

This I must give you: Glad I don't have to argue with you on a daily
basis due to me not being a good looser ;-)
Must admit that I went on a lookout tour on the web and you were damn
right the automotive fastners/nuts that I found were skinnier than the
standard nuts :-(
Never gave this much of a thought just grabbed another wrench for the
job. Living in Europe have wrenches and sockets in mm and having
troubles with the Imperial nuts and bolts.
Except for the hex/allen keys.
Having a South Bend lathe I'm forced to have at least Allen keys in
Imperial ;-)
Most of those "metric" bolts you are using are coarse thread too.
Pretty hard to find the fine thread metrics at most hardware stores -
and even a lot of "industrial supplies" - and some of the "coarse"
metrics are different than the coarse metrics used by the major
japanese and european auto manufacturers too -----.

That's the beauty, as they say in the computer world, of standards ---
There are so many to choose from!!!

I know I'm spoiled.
In this city we do have a very well supplied hardware store that carries
metric in both coarse and fine and also carries imperial coarse.
The other stuff they are willing to order even if you only need say 10 nuts.
I'm even more spoiled - a great industrial fastener distributor that
started out as a supplier of automotive upholstery "findings" - so
they carry just about any fastener part you could immagine - 5 miles
away Spae Naur Kemsies.