Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts and Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook by Carroll Smith (1990, Paperback)

Carroll Smith was first a successful racer, who moved on to work behind the scenes in the racing environment. He has an easy-to-understand way of writing. He takes a "dull" topic like hardware and makes it exciting, entertaining, and most of all informative.

He exposes you to metallurgy, design theory, practical experience, fluid flow and does it in such a way that it reminds me of the old Bill Cosby "Fat Albert" Saturday morning animated TV Show--the one where he says "...and if you're not careful, you may learn something" during the introduction. Carroll gets the knowledge through even if--maybe ESPECIALLY if--you're NOT a degreed mechanical engineer.

VERY STRONGLY RECOMMENDED if you fix vehicles even as a hobby, if you race vehicles, or if you are involved in any sort of mechanical/engineering endeavor where small parts are attached to each other to make large assemblies. (Or if you need to get fluids from one place to another on a vehicle or piece of equipment) I've easily recovered the cost of two copies of this book (first copy destroyed accidentally, and I wouldn't be without a copy!) by not making poor choices on the fasteners and hoses/tubing/fittings on my hobby cars.

Carroll Smith has other books--Engineer to Win, Drive to Win, Tune to Win--that are also recommended.

Carroll Smith died a few years ago. RIP.

A competing book--High Performance Hardware by Aird is also quite good--but Carroll Smiths Nuts, Bolts, etc. is the one to buy if you've got to choose between them.