We all do it. Take something apart & pay no attention to the fasteners as we let them fall on the workshop floor, or throw them in a pile on the work bench. And what about all those washers and other assorted small fasteners that fall into the abyss of lost fasteners forever between the engine and the tractor frame? How about all those fasteners that slip down into that place where it would take you the next three days to recover that twenty cent cap screw.

And this one is my favorite: You're under your machine and you hear that washer or nut fall off and hit the garage floor. You roll out from under and spend the next two hours wondering where it went to. When this happens to me it is usually a signal that it's time to take a break. For most of us we see this as no big deal. Just reach over into the bin and get another bolt or washer and move on. For others it might mean going down to the hardware store ( if you're lucky enough to still have one of those) and pick up a new shiny fastener.

My big change in attitude about the lonely fastener came one day when I was putting together a tractor frame and could not find that missing half inch X two inch self threading cap screw. It was a perfectly good 30 year old fastener and I lost it. There was no hardware store or big box store to come to my rescue. And to top it off, the fastener was no longer available from the parts department at John Deere! It put my project on hold for three weeks while I spent part of every day searching for the replacement.

Besides adding unnessary cost and time wasted to my project, the big lesson I got out of this was that items like fasteners, cotter pins, spring washers and the like are just as much a part of the restoration as is the engine, sheet metal and tires. While we may not think so, all those fasteners that came with the machine from the factory are as important to the restoration as that engine or pulley.

If you're a true purist like me and your goal is to truly restore your equipment to exactly the way it was when it left the assembly line, then you know exactly how important all those lost and damaged fasteners are. How far you take a restoration project is entirely up to you, of course. There are no rules as such. For some of us, restoration means exactly that. For others it may mean just getting a machine or attachment into working condition. And for others, replacement costs may make the difference. Not too long ago, I emptied a bucket of old, no longer servicable and damaged fasteners on my work bench. I made a list of the quantities, sizes,and when possible, the grades. I then went and shopped for the fasteners at one of those big box stores that boast fantastic savings and great quality.

I could not find everything on my list, but I did find all the common stuff. The other interesting point was that I could not find the replacement fasteners with the same grading. My partial list came to a staggering cost of $56.87. Yikes! And even more disturbing to me was that the new items were not even up to the standards of my old fasteners! Maybe you don't care if the replacement fastener is not the same or sub standard to the original; but maybe you do care about the additional and often unnecessary added cost of these little puppies.

Also, consider this issue: If you replace a bolt that should be a really strong one with something that is a really light duty one, the cost to repair and replace the damaged parts that occurs when that bolt fails, will make you wish you paid a lot more attention to these often abused low end fasteners. Not to mention the possibility of serious personal injury that can be caused by a bolt, or a spring that fails. So, regardless what restoration may mean to you, we should all pay attention to those little things that hold everything together.