how easily do carriage bolts rust?

[Jefferson]

Because of my weird partially hollow CP I need the carriage bolts on top. I sanded the numbers off em and they look great. Then I heard to avoid rusting they should either be painted (nah) or clearcoated, but my clear coat must have been weirdly thick cause I dipped the head, shook the excess, and it was still wicked thick and dried all lumpy and weird. I rolled it on and it killed the 'touchless' finish.

Should I just look an another brand of clear coat? Has anyone tried anything like Future floor wax?

Should I even be that worried about rusting in the first place?

J

[garnerb350]

Werid with teh paint you used...never seen that...

Floor wax, would probley degrade over time...faster than clear coat I guess...instead of using floor wax, see if your wife/girlfriend/etc happens to have clear fingernail polish...if you already have the wax...try it..shouldnt harm anything...

As for the rust issue...long as you have the cab in a moisture free area, you should be ok...

[t3design]

get stainless steel carriage bolts. They are not much more expensive at a local hardware store, shouldn't have any numbers on them in the first place. Polish them on a polishing wheel and they should stay that way for a very long time.

[CheffoJeffo]

+1

Or use a spray clear coat ... and clear nail polish doesn't sound like a bad idea.

[bkenobi]

If the bolts are near where players will put hands, you can guarantee salt water contact (sweat)!  I used zinc bolts and just accepted the marks on top.  They don't look spectacular being there, but they shouldn't rust for a while!

If I had it to do over, I'd probably go with stainless and sand them down like t3design suggested.

[Jefferson]

I have some minwax polycrylic, some minwax water based (oil modified!) polyurethane, and some spray can minwax water based (oil modified!) polyurethane (which I just used on my CP and it looks sooooo cool.)

Would poly work on metal though? or is that not the right kinda clear coat? I suppose I should really trial and error this stuff like I've done every step of the way.