[jbrewer]

Todd,
Those came out great and it's really the right way to go if there's a plater nearby. (If someone knows of a mail-order plater that we could send a bucket of hardware to, that would be good to know!)

The thing about wire wheeling cad plated stuff, is that the wire wheeling sure cleans them up well but I think it removes the cad plate in the process, and rust will form quickly. Thanks to the RoHS* initiative it's harder to find anyone who will do hex chromate plating that most hardware originally came with, and the replacement trivalent chromate plating is a poor substitute for rust protection.

The other downside is that some of the hardware gets launched into low earth orbit never to be seen again.

It sure is cool to have the right fasteners on the Cubs. All bolts will function just as well, but it's just not quite right. :-) The 123 I just purchased has some CAT branded bolts which is pretty cool.

It's too bad we don't have some Cub historians. It would be interesting (to me) to know whether IH actually made their own fasteners or just had them built with the IH headstamp.

John



* "Reduction of Hazardous Substances" -- an EU initiative designed to remove lead, hexavalent chromate and many other substances from the industry.