Stainless Steel, OEM, Billet AU or Aircraft

[88 Turbo Coupe]

I'm lightening up my "R". I need to replace the frame nuts and bolts. I was told aircraft hardware is the strongest and lightest and stainless steel is the brother of a boat anchor. Not sure of billet AU or oem.

[compaqkoci]

if you use a good aircraft aluminum, along with gussets suporting the structure it will be very very strong. and remember using arcs and circles in your frame makes it stronger :-D also i know its ugly...but if you make a frame you can use rectangle stock alot stronger if used right

[350XXX]

as for strength of hardware, as that was what you asked about. titanium hardware is by far the stongest and lightest, but by far and large the most expensive and hardest to get your hands on. aircraft grade aluminium fasteners are hardened by heat treat, they are strong, but not as strong as steel or SS. stainless wont rust as easily and is very heavy. "billet" is a term used to describe something machined out of a solid block of material, no matter what the material is. all of the fasteners are available in several grades of tensile strength, grade 10 being the hardest commonly available and grade 8 being more commonly used. grade 5 is what you get at most stores unless you specify a harder grade. now, if i havent confused you, my choice for weight would be either SS or hard steel. they are cheaper and hard. and bolts for these machines are JIS, Japenese Industrial Standard, so you might have a hard time finding replacements that have the flanges and shoulders the same. good luck.