Emira Quirks

[Concept24]

Since my car is likely to be arriving in either December or January, we'll be in full winter by then so I won't be driving it. After seeing those pictures of all the exposed bolt heads and washers underneath the car, I think I'll be putting my car up on a lift, and begin replacing all those steel bolts and washers with high corrosion resistant, high strength aircraft grade aluminum ones. In addition to saving me the headache of corrosion and rust on the steel fasteners, replacing that many should save a few pounds of weight too. It'll give me something to do during the couple of months or three that I won't be able to drive the car.

I'll weigh the aluminum ones I replace the factory steel ones with, then after removing the factory ones I'll weigh those to get a total weight savings number. I'm only going to replace one bolt and washer at a time, so nothing will move during the whole process. I know from having replaced 20 factory steel lug nuts with high strength aluminum racing ones, that the savings will add up.

Consider commercially pure titanium bolts if strength is nor of paramount importance.

 

[Eagle7]

Consider commercially pure titanium bolts if strength is nor of paramount importance.

In the interest of avoiding galvanic corrosion issues, I'm going to stick with like metals. A high strength aluminum bolt and washer will be more than adequate to simply fasten aluminum under body panels. It avoids galvanic corrosion issues, and they'll be cheaper than Titanium. At that level, the weight difference would be negligible.

 

[Concept24]

In the interest of avoiding galvanic corrosion issues, I'm going to stick with like metals. A high strength aluminum bolt and washer will be more than adequate to simply fasten aluminum under body panels. It avoids galvanic corrosion issues, and they'll be cheaper than Titanium. At that level, the weight difference would be negligible.

But what you should not do is thread an aluminum bolt into aluminum (to prevent seizing/galling). Even if you're not doing that, aluminum is very soft compared to other metals. Commercially pure titanium screws are not that expensive. I have used them for marine and fresh water instruments. A set of 8 M6 bolts and nuts was $20.

 

[Liquid Hot Magma]

Since my car is likely to be arriving in either December or January, we'll be in full winter by then so I won't be driving it. After seeing those pictures of all the exposed bolt heads and washers underneath the car, I think I'll be putting my car up on a lift, and begin replacing all those steel bolts and washers with high corrosion resistant, high strength aircraft grade aluminum ones. In addition to saving me the headache of corrosion and rust on the steel fasteners, replacing that many should save a few pounds of weight too. It'll give me something to do during the couple of months or three that I won't be able to drive the car.

I'll weigh the aluminum ones I replace the factory steel ones with, then after removing the factory ones I'll weigh those to get a total weight savings number. I'm only going to replace one bolt and washer at a time, so nothing will move during the whole process. I know from having replaced 20 factory steel lug nuts with high strength aluminum racing ones, that the savings will add up.

This is exactly what I’m planning to do, too. Are you able to advise what bolt size (I’m going to guess M6?), and length? Do you know roughly how many bolts are fastening the undertray (pieces) to the car?

 

[Eagle7]

There's a lot. I highly recommend getting the service manual, as it shows all the bolts/fasteners, what they are and the torque value for tightening them. Here's just one page as an example:

 

[Liquid Hot Magma]

There's a lot. I highly recommend getting the service manual, as it shows all the bolts/fasteners, what they are and the torque value for tightening them. Here's just one page as an example:

View attachment 40272

Thank you. I’ve registered an account at LSIC to download the service manual.