I's like to stick to the metric sizes, instead of switching to the SAE, since everything else on the car is metric. I have sent emails to McMaster Carr, Fastenal, Brafasco with a photo.

McMaster Carr replied they do not carry the product. I do not have a West Marine store in town. Here is a little photo of the screw.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
1989 420 SEL

A metric stainless hex head sheetmetal screw??? Good luck my friend. It might be out there. Let us know if you can find it. Maybe you can find a standard with a size that is close enough to a metric size that you can call it "good enough". Didn't someone offer you some OEM ones? That was a pretty good deal.

Mike

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Yes, I can get the OEM screws, but they are not stainless steel, they are only zinc plated. I'd like to buy these once and for all. Up here in Canada they like to salt the roads in winter, so these screws will be getting a daily brine bath over the next few months.

I've sent an email now to boltdepot and mscdirect, with a photo. Let's see if they can help.

Once I find them, all you 126 owners ought to upgrade your screws to stainless steel. If you haven't replaced those fuel bracket and shroud screws, you may want to do it right away, before you have to start drilling them out.

__________________
1989 420 SEL

To calc out # screw diameters use .013x the # +.06 that will give you the aprox dia.

Example for a #14 screw is .013x14=.182+.06=.242

6mm is .236 so #14 in inch is close for the dia.

The next thing to look at is the pitch. In inch it will be stated as TPI (threads per inch) so if you divide the TPI into 1 the result will be the pitch (length of one thread).

Ex: 1/4-20 is 20 TPI 1/20=.05

Metric thread is given as dia. and pitch in mm and most times the pitch is left out and it is simply stated as dia. (Ex:M6x1.25)

Measure the distance between the peeks of two theads and that will be the pictch you are looking for.

Hope this helps in your quest.

__________________
82 Rabbit diesel (first d), 84 Jetta turbo d (300k when sold), 83 240d (305k when sold), 84 F250 6.9d w/Banks turbo(parts truck), 86 F250 6 cyl.gasser(waiting for 6.9d), 84 300d ( 347k Sold 8/04), Y2k New Bettle TDI (185k miles), 95 740IL (wifes), 87 300TD (206k Sold 7/05), 05 Passat TDI Wagon

In my first post in this thread I did what Jay said and gave the result. I know that Havana doesn't want SAE, but if you do, my second post shows where to buy stainless steel sheet metal screws that are very usable (and found with practical ease).

__________________
The Golden Rule

1984 300SD (bought new, sold it in 1988, bought it back 13 yrs. later)

Look in the yellow pages under fasteners or nuts & bolts. there are an amazing number of supply houses that sell and stock every fastener available, and they will probably be cheaper than the big industrial supply places.

MSC has a catalog that is searchable online FYI.

__________________
RIP "Betsy" (Oo=*=oO)
'96 E 3 2 0 (W 2 1 0) M 1 0 4 (Totalled)
Spaces in sig so as not to screw up the SEARCH; every time someone searches for that MB they don't want my sig!

2004 Audi A8L
'98 VW Passat 1.8T 5M
'87 Alfa Romeo Milano 2.5L 5M
'67 Impala convertible, 327cid