How to Know your nuts and bolts

Old age has many downsides, whether you are a car or a human. Things don’t fit, you forget what has already been fitted and modern stuff isn’t always straightforward to adopt. So when you’re faced with a Mk1 Escort that’s 50 years old and has been maintained, repaired and perhaps restored by a number of previous owners, how sure can you be that all of its essential nuts and bolts are the correct types? The following pages reveal all, explaining the jargon behind the technical terms of threads per inch or the difference between fine and coarse. We also examine whether it’s feasible to switch from an older nut or bolt to a more modern metric fastening, which may be worthwhile if your toolbox has a limited selection of imperial AF spanners. There’s a lot of confusing information, but hopefully, you won’t be quite so bewildered after reading our guide.

JARGON BUSTER

2/5/8: Imperial grading of fastenings often found on US bolts, which is similar to the metric grading system.

A metric grading system for