NOS TAB alternative [was: Re: Toby TABS]

["Toby Peterson <tobyp@xxxx>" <tobyp@xxxx>]

Farrar - The bolts that John offers are somewhat stronger than the OEM 
bolts (12.9 on the metric scale as opposed to 10.9). They are made 
from carbon steel with soft cadmium plating for corrosion protection. 
While they are incrementally better than the original bolts, they are 
still subject to corrosion if the plating is disturbed. Also, cadmium 
plating is sacrificial, meaning that it is designed to dissipate over 
time. In effect, it corrodes away so that the steel bolt underneath 
won't. However, when it's gone ... it's gone. As far as strength is 
concerned, since we don't really know what the true stresses in the 
joint are, without a lot of strain gage measurements, we don't know if 
this incrementally stronger bolt is just good enough (or not). The 
TOBY-TAB's are 50% stronger, and will never corrode. Each owner must 
make his or her decision on which way they want to go, based on $$ 
and desired level of confidence. Either way is certainly better than 
ignoring the whole problem. See the old poll where 30% of those 
responding said, in effect, "don't know, and don't care". Those 
people really bother me!

Toby Peterson VIN 2248
Winged1 


--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Farrar Hudkins <fhudkins@xxxx> wrote:
> James,
> I have seen a set of TABs on specialtauto.com which are supposed to 
> be better than the NOS ones. (They are certainly newer!) I can't 
> recall at the moment what their construction is, but they're more 
> available than the Toby TABs.