Hillco Fastener Warehouse, Inc.

Hillco's annual Super Cruise will be held on Sunday, February 5, 2012, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm. Since our first show in 2003 Super Cruise Sunday is the only game in town before the Big Game! Last year we had 250 cars, and this year we expect even more. Anything on wheels welcome: street rods, imports, customs, race cars, off-road vehicles, tractors, motorcycles, etc., etc. Door prizes and 50/50 raffle make it fun for everyone! 50/50 proceeds to benefit Orangewood Children's Home in Orange, California.

We'll be open for business from 9:00-1:00. Check out our chrome, stainless steel, body shop fasteners, and our new Pro Shop Assortments. See you Sunday!

Hillco Fastener Warehouse is now stocking the K-Four line of automotive electrical products. The extensive K-Four line has it's roots in the tough off-road market, being on the Baja 1000 winners for the past two decades. Hillco's massive inventory of nuts & bolts, rod ends, A-N plumbing products, and now K-Four makes it your one-stop for all our hardware needs. Come by and check us out!

Download the K-4 Contents & Catalog PDF

Plated Grade 5, which has a tensile strength of 120,000 p.s.i., is also excellent for bolting on fenders, running boards, valve covers, and intake manifolds (without super-chargers), or any other general application where Grade 8 is not required. Some of our customers use Grade 5 when fabricating projects, and convert to stainless or ARP for final assembly.

Grade 8 should be used on suspension or anything else that spins, slides or thrashes about in any way. This includes alternators, power steering pumps, smog pumps, air conditioning pumps, and bolts that hold the fan blades. Keep in mind that whenever a fastener is used in a moving or shaking or rotating application its life is reduced by 92% compared to a static application.

Grade 9 (F-911) bolts have a tensile strength minimum of 180,000 p.s.i. This product is used by heavy trucking, earth-moving equipment maintenance shops, and off-road racers. We recommend using extra thick heavy-duty washers and Grade C lock nuts for a strong assembly.

Washers are the most misunderstood fastener there is, and their importance is almost always understated or ignored. Grade 5 and Stainless Steel washers are for moderate use only -- fenders, valve covers, or any area where sheet metal or some other soft material is being used. On all heavy-duty installations, as noted above, use Grade 8 flat washers.

Always use either lock washers or lock nuts without fail. We have two kinds of lock nuts. The first and most common is the nylon insert lock nut (Nylok). This nut is best used in applications where moderate strength is required. The effectiveness of the nylon locking material will degrade under high temperatures. In larger sizes, Nyloks will perform adequately on suspension as long as the bolt is in shear, but we recommend Grade C lock nuts because of their superior strength. Grade C lock nuts can withstand moderate heat(under 300°F) for long periods of time without degradation. Grade C lock nuts are sometimes called stover nuts, oval locks, crimp nuts, and top lock nuts, and should always be used with a Grade 8 flat washer.

Fasteners . . . the last thing you think of, the first thing you need!

A typical situation for a busy professional shop or a do-it-yourselfer is that while you’re in the middle of a repair job or installing a new piece of equipment, you have to stop what you’re doing, get into your car and drive to a hardware store or home improvement center because you need a longer, larger, or different style nut, bolt, or screw. The work on the job or special project comes to a complete stop, and sometimes you don’t get back to it for days, weeks, or months!

The frustration associated with the above scenario can be eliminated with Hillco’s new ProShop Assortments! They are available in a variety of SAE and metric sizes and include nuts, bolts, washers, machine screws, sheet metal screws, studs, and even nylon wire ties, electrical terminals, hose clamps and just about anything you’ll need for installations and repairs.

At a cost of $79.95 each for the heavy-duty plastic drawer and $94.95 for the metal drawer, Pro Shop Assortments are a great value. They are designed to save you time and money, and to eliminate the costly interruptions associated with not having the right fastener on hand. With over 30-years of research and thousands of assortments sold, our Pro Shop Assortments have evolved with experience to make them efficient, practical and economical.

If you’d like more information regarding ProShop Assortments call us at
714 657-7442 or send an email to sales@hillcofasteners.com.

While there are more than one hundred different AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) chemistry grades of stainless steel, the most commonly used in commercial fasteners (nuts, bolts, washers, fittings) are types 18-8 and 316. "18-8" is short-hand for 18% chromium and 8% nickel. This alloy content is found in types 302,303, and 304 stainless steel. While they offer a high degree of corrosion resistance, they are slightly magnetic. So don't be fooled just because your stainless washers stick to your magnet. Also, there is a small presence of iron in 18-8 fasteners, so they can corrode in severe conditions. 316 stainless generally offers better corrosion resistance and is even referred to as "marine grade stainless," but it is not resistant to warm sea water. Here at Hillco Fastener Warehouse, 99% of all stainless steel fasteners we sell are 18-8, which is sufficient for pretty much all street rod or other automotive projects, in terms of corrosion resistance.

Contrary to popular belief, and probably the most common misconception about fasteners held by our customers here at Hillco, stainless steel fasteners are not very strong. Now, please don't confuse strength with toughness. Anyone who's ever attempted to drill or cut a stainless bolt knows how tough they can be. But for purposes of this article, let's understand that strength refers to tensile strength. A type 18-8 or 316 stainless steel bolt typically has a tensile strength of around 80,000 psi, which is only slightly stronger than a Grade 2 bolt. If I had a nickel for every customer who came to me explaining that he wanted to use stainless steel bolts in place of his stock suspension bolts, I'd be a rich man. But, if I sold them to them, I'd be a poor man due to being sued for selling them weak bolts! There are other types of high strength stainless bolts that are now available for such applications, but they are usually a special order item, as they are too expensive to keep in stock. So, if you need something strong that will not rust, call us and we'll help you find exactly what you need.

Also important to know when using stainless steel fasteners is that they tend to gall, or cold weld. I also wish I had a nickel for every customer that came to Hillco claiming "You sold me the wrong nut. Look, it stuck to the bolt, and I had to break it to get it off!" I then point to the signs posted everywhere recommending the use of anti-seize to prevent galling. This is where I usually hear them say "Ohhhh. So that's what anti-seize is for." We recommend using nickel anti-seize (ND Industries Vibra-Tite part # ND90704, a 4-oz bottle for $9.50). Think of it as cheap insurance for your stainless steel nuts and bolts. You'll spend a lot of time breaking, grinding, and cutting off bolts if you don't use anti-seize.

Our good friend and business associate, John Lazenby of Royze, Inc., recently shared this with us. We thought it was very entertaining and hope you will too!

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat

metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and

flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project

which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under

the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and

hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say,

'Oh sh -- '

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their

holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of

blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor

touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board

principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable

motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more

dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt

heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer

intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable

objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside

the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood

projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground

after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle

firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to

cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into

the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of

the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength

of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under

lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil

on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out

Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used

to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and

butchering your palms.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or

bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays

is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts

adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard

cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on

contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic

bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic

parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in

use.

DAMM-IT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage

while yelling 'DAMM-IT' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often,

the next tool that you will need.

"Who buys this stuff?" Hillco employees get that question everday. Odd for someone to be standing in our store, presumably to buy something, or with someone who is looking for some nuts or bolts from our product line, but I digress. While Hillco has enjoyed serving customers large and small in lots of industries, our "bread & butter" has been the auto repair or paint and body/restoration shops. My dad, and Hillco's founder, Jack Hill, has been dutifully calling on and supplying much needed fasteners to shops from San Diego to Los Angeles and the Inland Empire since the early 1970s. He's still at it today, and can't wait for tomorrow. Over the years, he developed a program, called Accu-Pak, which serves as a guarantee to never over-fill the hardware bins or assortments found in most shops. You've seen the gray cabinets (sometimes red, blue, or brown) filled with the various nuts, bolts, fittings, or connectors at your local repair garage. Well, unfortunately, some sales reps have taken advantage of a trusting shop owner by filling those drawers to the brim, regardless of the customer's usage. The guys in the shop just sign for it, the sales rep sends a bill to the A/P department and hopes the owner never even catches on. Most owners do catch on, however, as they watch their dollars just like you and I do. This has the negative effect of causing all shop owners to look down upon fastener salesmen, making cold-calling very tough, and, sometimes uncomfortable. So Hillco guarantees never to do that. This program has served us well over the years. We have a very consistent customer base. In some shops we are now dealing with the second generation, as some owner's children have taken over the family business. As Jack says, "We lose more customers to the cemetery than to the competition." So, if you need a saleman to come by and check your bins, please give Hillco a call. If you don't have any bins, or you need a fastener assortment, Hillco has a great selection of professional shop assortments. We are the most trusted and respected name in automotive fasteners in Southern California, since 1976.