Price of a bolt

[sube]

Changing the spark plugs and timing chains on my 5.4 Ford 1998 van . Found out that someone left a bolt out of the power steering pump any how went to the Ford stealership to pick one up.
After 15 minutes to look it up , I brought a bolt to show him what he was looking for a 3 inch m8 metric bolt he tells me $32.85 for the bolt but had to buy 4 I said I only needed one so he made me a print out for another stealership that I could buy 1 30 miles away .
I said it says $32.85 on here without batting a eye your lucky you don't need all 4 that would be $130 I said f@@k that sh@t so I went to the hardware store and bought one for .37 cents .
Here I have been keeping all the silver coins I find thinking they were valuable and throwing the rusty bolts away that bolt was the same price as a oz of silver . sube

 

[north1]

I feel your pain. With agriculture as my profession and misers (grandfather + father) for mentors I have come to repurpose everything. There are A LOT of fasteners in the equipment I use.

So anything and everything that becomes used up I strip it down when there is downtime. Every nut, bolt, washer or any other type of fastener is then sorted by size/grade and put in storage.

I have found that fasteners made over 20 years ago are much, much better quality. Kind of sad though. A lot of them are head stamped with USA manufacturers. IHC. John Deere. International harvestor controlled the process from mining iron ore, ships to transport it, foundry to smelt/forge and create their own fasteners. Makes me want to cry. Vestiges of a bygone era and once great powerhouse country.

 

[MuddyMo]

It’s always been a smart thing to save useable parts if you have a place to store them but with inflation the past 4-5 years it has become a necessity unless you’re rich or don’t do anything except watch tv. The stated inflation does NOT indicate how much more everything cost compared to pre-bs-pandemic time. Building materials are 5X higher. It’s less expensive to buy an older home than for me to build one even not including my labor. Small things like putting basic electric in a garage went from $3-400 to $2000~. A $5k garage is now $20k. It’s only a matter of time before old home prices go higher to the point no one can afford them or wages will have to double. Either way I can only see the economy having big problems.

 

[north1]

Three bolts. If I remember correctly IH dropped there head stamp and then fasteners were made at West Pullman plant in Chicago. They also manufactured a lot of other things like magnetos, alternators, etc. The other two are John Deere and the older IH stamped bolt. Top quality. Not like the Chinese butter bolts you get now that in my estimation can’t be properly graded as Grade 5, 8, etc.

I do identify with the pain sube pointed out though. My metric bolt inventory is severely lacking. Which is unfortunate because more and more equipment and vehicles are being assembled with them.