Whatever, I'll make it 16 pages if I feel like it, and how many pages is the book on torque wrenches, 30 and it's a good 30 years old, so we're not there yet (and what, would you criticize the author for writing continuous paragraphs)! Thanks for helping though. But like I said, you've got several hundred page rant threads on here, and are trying to rant on this one, while saying it's too long, while continuing to rant and make it longer, so go torque a lug nut buddy.
Anyway, I did a test on a spare nut and bolt with the Bondo as a potential torque seal indicator. It didn't really break apart when turned though, just detached from the threads and stayed on the face of the nut. I doubt any type of sealant would work well enough without being too much trouble to clean the surfaces in hopes of it binding perfectly, or have to redo that after wheels were removed. I think my best bet if I want to get an indication beyond a glance or put a wrench on them all the time is to keep track of thread protrusion with a tread depth gauge, or something of the kind, and log what it was on each wheel (where all the lugs seem to stick out about the same), given that there aren't too many vehicles to keep tabs on. By the way, that one I took a picture of with all the surface rust and flaking paint wasn't under torqued, so I don't think rust streaks or a wheel covered it tells us much. Good to check of course, it's just as likely on a shiny new one (which was the case in point).
I just found a very nice feature in this forum called "ignore". If you come across a member that just wont stop beating a dead horse, just go to their profile, click ignore and poof, they're gone without a trace and you wont ever see or hear from them again. Life's too short to waste time obsessing about and overthinking simple things.
I'm not done though, still have some info to share about how the tools and pm works out for me. Maybe I'll summarize it at some point (since I gave someone a headache with tmi).
naw wheel offs happen because of poor maintenance sorta like a guy who thinks about lugnut torque but then because of OCD spends 2 months on research before ever putting a wrench on a lugnut. sound like anyone you know ?
Sounds like some hillbilly with a torque wrench up his ### is commenting, and invited all the kin folk to chime in. Go ahead and ignore all the facts, but print this out and wipe a little better (it's like backwoods learning by osmosis). By the way I only waited that long because they screwed up my order, and had to pull a wrench out from somewhere else... not a problem, probably researched it a little more than I would have otherwise, so it's all good.