Automotive Fasteners, Clips & Hardware

Upon casual inspection, it would seem that the fasteners, clips & hardware used on race cars are identical to those used on ordinary production vehicles. But while many of them may appear the same and are in fact available in the same sizes, these unsung yet indispensable race-spec parts are made of materials that make them much stronger and more durable than their street-going counterparts. Fasteners, clips & hardware for race cars must be constructed this way so they can reliably connect and secure components on highly-stressed machines operating in the grueling racing environment.

There is a significant amount of physical and financial risk in racing when you’re pushing a car to its limit at high speeds, and using premium quality fasteners, clips & hardware like you’ll find here on our digital shelves helps to minimize this risk. After all, no racer wants to experience a DNF, or worse, a crash and serious personal injury and equipment damage, because of a failed bolt. Furthermore, unlike most of the fasteners, clips & hardware on a typical family car, which won’t be touched for the life of the vehicle, race cars are routinely disassembled and assembled for repairs and modifications, and their fasteners, clips and hardware must be durable enough to endure repeated loosening and tightening without losing their ability to make a dependably strong and secure attachment.

Car builders utilize a mix of specialized and familiar fasteners in the construction of their competition machines. Well-known fasteners like hex bolts come in many standard and metric sizes and lengths, in SAE coarse and fine thread, and metric thread in various thread pitches, in high-strength grade 8 carbon alloy steel, and for select applications chrome moly, martensitic, nickel and cobalt alloys with even higher tensile strengths. Of course, high-strength stainless steel fasteners are also available that will never rust or corrode, or if you want strength with weight saving there are titanium fasteners that are approximately 40% lighter than comparable steel fasteners. Racing fastener manufacturers also heat treat bolts and roll form the threads. Many builders consider it good practice to safety wire bolts to ensure they stay put, and it’s also easy to make sure a bolt I still tight just by looking at it. Some bolts for racing applications are available pre-drilled to make safety wiring easy, and we offer both the safety wire and safety wire pliers.

Hex nuts and 12-point nuts also come in high-strength steel and stainless steel in standard SAE coarse and fine thread, and metric thread in various thread pitches. There are several ways to keep a nut from loosening once installed. Nylon locking nuts, commonly called nylocks, have a nylon collar insert in the threads to lock the nut in place. Prevailing torque lock nuts feature distorted threads at the cone-shaped top of the nut for locking, while centerlock nuts are distorted in the middle and can therefore be installed from either end. Serrated flange nuts have serrations where the nut contacts the part surface to keep the nut from turning once installed, and Keps K locknuts have an integral free turning serrated washer which works in the same manner. The slots in slotted nuts, also called castle nuts or castellated nuts, allow a cotter pin to be inserted through a hole in a threaded shaft to prevent loosening. We also have lock washers and flat washers in all popular sizes. There are also nuts that are permanently or semi-permanently installed to provide a captive attachment point, such as weld nuts which are welded in place, or nut plates that are riveted in place.

Studs are fasteners that are threaded at each end. Instead of attaching a part with a bolt that screws into another component, a stud is threaded into the component and the part is secured with a nut at the other end of the stud. This method of attachment has several advantages, which is why it is regularly used on racing engine blocks for mounting components like cylinder heads and main bearing caps. Studs don’t twist when the nut is torqued, as bolts do, so torque is more accurate. The stationary studs also only stretch in one axis, for better clamping. Racing engines are frequently torn down and rebuilt, and when there are no bolts that must be repeatedly removed and installed, the threads in the block will last longer. We offer main cap, cylinder head, and valve cover stud kits, and all are manufactured in high tensile strength chrome moly steel, which is heat-treated and rolled to form the threads.

Rivets are another time-honored fastener that’s used throughout a typical race car because they provide a strong, lightweight, and very durable method of attachment. They’re ideal for use on applications where there is no access to the back of the part. Blind rivets are the most common type of rivet and consist of the rivet body and a mandrel. The body is placed in a hole in the components to be joined, then a rivet gun is used to pull the mandrel into the body, expanding the body and forming an enlarged surface around the hole that locks the parts together. When the rivet is formed the mandrel snaps off, making a popping noise, which is why blind rivets are also known as pop rivets. We offer rivets in steel, aluminum, and stainless steel, and they’re available with domed open ends, closed ends, countersunk, and with large flanges. Rivet nuts are similar to blind rivets in that access to the other side of the material to which the rivet will be installed is not required. They are used when a threaded hole for part attachment is needed.

Races can be won or lost in fractions of a second, roughly the same amount of time required to take up slack in a pivot point with a rubber bushing. While polyurethane is a step above rubber, to completely eliminate play while ensuring minimal friction and maximum range of motion, many race cars are equipped with spherical rod ends. These are available in sizes suitable for everything from throttle linkage to suspension member attachment points. The ends are threaded and secured with locknuts, which also allows fine adjustment of systems like shift linkage and dimensions such as pinion angle and suspension alignment.

While race car fasteners, clips & hardware pieces are about strength, some are also designed to allow the car to be taken apart and put back together quickly. Body components like hoods, fenders, doors and hatches must routinely be taken off to gain access to the engine and other components, and some lightweight carbon fiber and fiberglass panels can’t be secured with factory hinges designed for heavy metal panels. Hardware like quarter-turn fasteners and quick release pins are used in place of bolts, nuts and factory hinges that would be too time consuming to manipulate, so these body panels can be quickly removed and installed. Speedy bodywork removal and installation is a necessity when a lot of wrenching has to be done between rounds. We offer quarter turn and cam lock fasteners, and a variety of quick release pin styles.

In addition to the above, we can supply you with cotter pins to secure other fasteners like castle nuts, hairpin clips that are installed on grooved shafts and some that have straight sides for installation in a hole in the shaft, roll pins, also called spring pins, to locate and secure components, and dowel pins to align parts with one another. We also have retaining rings to secure components on shafts or within a bore. E-clips are typically used on shafts with external machined grooves, while circlips and snap rings are for installation in internal grooves. Here you’ll find cotter pins, hairpin clips, roll pins, dowel pins, E-clips, circlips and snap rings in many sizes, including assortments that contain quantities of all popular sizes. With our extensive collection of clamps, you’ll be able to route and safely secure hoses and wiring. And no matter whether you’ve stripped the threads in a spark plug port or any other threaded hole, with our broad selection of thread repair inserts you’ll be able to restore functionality to like new and preserve valuable components.