Ah ok thanks for the Info man! I am really excited about getting this thing on the road and being patriotic is a good thing! I miss seeing alot of these American muscles on the road so i am doing my part to get another on the road!
It goes beyond being patriotic (though I won't buy anything at Walmart other than DVD's and Wrigley bubble gum because I always buy only American made products if I can). The reason you don't want a cheap bolt is China and India and all of Asia doesn't have the iron ore deposits or the coal to melt it. Consequently all of the steel that they use comes from recycling steel made originally here in the US or Europe. Used steel (scrap iron) contains contaminates from the aluminum rivets and the copper wires that are part and parcel of old refrigerators and used cars. That metal contaminates the steel and makes it weak by providing shear planes in the molecular structure of the pig that they cast from the scrap iron at the foundry.
Consequently their grade eight bolts are closer to our grade three bolts and almost every bolt used on a car is at least a grade five and important bolts that transfer power or hold up the car are all grade eight. (the screws that hold the trim on are grade three). If a bolt breaks your wheel comes off or the motor comes unglued which you really don't want to happen. Even the government is caught up in this problem since they buy fasteners as cheaply as they can but normal business practices in China is bribery so some bad stuff gets through the MIL Spec quality control program because of bribes (not only cash but women).
I spent nine years of my life checking up on factories and foundries making products to verify they wouldn't kill any one from over seas (includes India and Malaysia as well as Taiwan). Thet routinely attempted to bribe me with everything from gold to beautiful women to look the other way and ignore how they made low quality cheap stuff for export in the hopes of making a higher profit.
There are no laws in China controlling commerce or the environment. Theft and lying as well as bribery are skills learned as a child there if they want to succeed in business. (If they get caught and it causes the government embarrassment such as tainted baby food, or bad dry wall, or bad dog food that kills dogs, or even using banned lead in painted children's toys; the owner is taken out in the middle of the night and shot dead. That is the only control mechanism in place).
Big Dave
