I think the “motor industry engineer” may be saying broadly the same thing as you, but describing the effect as static friction rather than claiming the two parts “form a solid body”. You seem to be assuming he means dynamic friction, which is not the same phenomenon as static friction or “stiction”.
Sorry, but you seem to be suggesting Stiction is a continuous force. It’s not, it’s a threshold at which point surfaces break apart… so no, the engineer is not even referring to stiction.
That is akin to saying put the wheel on without bolts…you can drive up to x mph and then the stiction will be overcome at which point the wheel will come off.
If he is applying stiction or you are suggesting he is then the same principle must be applied to the nuts on the bolts…
Nuts don’t stay on bolts by stiction they stay on bolts by torque. Torque is used to “measure” the stretch of a bolt through clamping forces. Friction is not what keeps a bolt tight, it is the tension caused by stretching the bolt…and whilst torque is not a precise measurement of that force, it is the best we can use, this is why there are torque settings.
Neither I nor your engineer are saying any such thing.
So long as the nuts are correctly tightened, the torque transferred through the hub to the wheel is applied through the mating surface and is not a lateral force applied to the wheel studs. That’s what he’s saying, and I am agreeing with him. I think that’s what you are saying too but for some reason you don’t like the way he expresses it. If you don’t like the concept of static friction in the Wikipedia page I linked to above, I suggest you edit the Wikipedia page and perhaps take the matter up with someone like the I Mech E instead of me.
There is no need for anyone to edit that wiki as keeping a wheel has nothing to do with friction, stiction, voodoo magic or dark matter. The point the engineer qouted on a previous page was making was that one should not use copper slip for the reason that friction is at work. It’s not.
Take these multi holed wheel spacers that are in use…they have considerably less surface area. How does a wheel stay on with those in use?
The point is, it is entirely safe and practical to use copper slip between the mating surfaces to both protect from corrosion and prevent two different metals oxidising and therefore fusing together. Thereafter, it is down to regular maintenance…and obviously not huge dollops copper grease.
I totally agree that a smear of copper slip makes no difference - it clearly doesn’t or a whole lot of cars would be missing their wheels right now.
But you totally misunderstand the power of the friction between those plates (copper or no) - the entirety of your (and every) engine’s torque is being put through a smooth plate clutch being held by only a spring…no studs or nuffin…it really isn’t ‘voodoo magic’.
so Mike, did you get that… its simply really… 
best thread for ages… 
This has been fascinating, so much passion!! And I have learnt a lot too,
funny thing is I was only having a winge about a tyre fitter making a mess ( in my opinion )
So what is stopping the nut coming undone?
I think what you are trying to say is that the torque is applied to the thread therefore induces a strain in the stud or bolt and a measure of that strain is the torque applied to the nut or bolt head. However torque is a vector and so it is not what is keeping the faster from undoing. Be it strain in the threads, the imperfect fit of cone in cone, or serrated teeth on washer faces, it is some form of deformation that is causing a retaining effort that keeps the nut from undoing or not. If there was no resulting friction, the stud, being strained within its elastic limit, would just cause the nut to back up the thread until no strain and no clamping force existed.
Torque is applied to the nut or bolt in the form of lb/f (or whatever units you want to chose) to provide a resulting clamping force in lb/f2 or whatever again you chose which will impart a static friction (friction being a force that is created when two surfaces try to move across each other) That amount of friction is dependent on the types of surface and the force pushing the two surfaces together. The greater the torque you apply to the nut, the greater the clamping force it applies to the two surfaces, in this case the hub and the wheel mounting face and thus increases the static friction.
I think we all understood that it was being said that it is not placing the bolts or studs in shear that is the primary method of drive.
COMMON SENSE…
To be honest if I went some where and they were slapping it on with a paint brush, I would go off my head, I love the stuff and always use it when re-building to make sure that next time I need to attack a problem I just need a rag, wipe clean and undo everything, instead of a grinder, drill, taps etc, and extra hours of faffing around because of lack of a bit of lube because it says so on the forums, never ever have I had a problem using this stuff on any of my own cars or other peoples…ever.
COMMONE SENSE…<o:p></o:p>
In answer to the question regardless of god saying NO, a SMEAR ONLY is used on the brake disk hub as a protection from rust build up and the oxidizing of the alloy rim so they DO NOT become fused together, and believe me it does happen.<o:p></o:p>
The only one in this thread as far as I can see that will be getting a lot more cars through his hands will be Nick, most of the rest of you will only be dealing with just your own and that’s it and you will more than likely removing your rims often, so there would be no need to apply a SMEAR of anti seize compound grease…copper slip.<o:p></o:p>
Most of the work that I have done on these roadsters will not benefit me after using the stuff in the right place, but the next spanner thrower, has nothing would have rusted and fused to snap.<o:p></o:p>
The out come from this thread as always is that I will not be changing the way I do things, as I have never hit any problems myself or from owners I have helped, when I start dodging wheels all over the country where they have fell off from using the stuff, or a major news flash about using the stuff hit the air ways only then will I look at using it in a different way but until then…if any one slaps a hand full on the brake disc hub, and it sprays everywhere while driving with the lack of COMMON SENSE onto the face of the disc and pads , then they deserve not to be on the road , as they are a danger to other road users<o:p></o:p>
I will say this again…COMMON SENSE please<o:p></o:p>
M-m <o:p></o:p>
I’m in the trade mate 30 years now and 
The trouble with common sense is that it does not seem to be very common these days! Or am I just getting too old? One advantage of being a cynic is that 99.9% of the time you are right!
Regards Geoff Peace.
Thin smear of coppaslip used here on mating surfaces of hub and wheel, never on threads or tapered face of wheel bolts/nuts.
Had to get a stuck alloy off once, it was really stuck fast. The garage had to get the other side off, he had a right battle with it. This was on a Vauxhall though not the Mk2. Just imagine at the side of the road doing this with a puncture and it’s stuck. Anyways the Mk2 wheels come off more frequently for servicing than that Vx ever did, that’s pre my ownership anyway.
Yes between wheel and disc. Not between hub and disc. The latter should be cleaned as well as possible before fitting a new disc “dry”. Yes, the disc will corrode itself onto the hub fairly quickly, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it stops it shifting when you take off the wheel and potentially getting a bit of grit between the hub and the disc, which could cause runout.
There is better stuff than copper grease available for wheels - BMW dealers use a white rubber-based compound that comes in a little sachet. The idea is just to prevent galvanic corrosion bertween the alloy wheel and the steel hub, which is what makes them stick. Believe me, BMW wheels REALLY stick, even when they are greased - maybe they have a bigger contact area or something.
It’s useful to keep a rubber mallet in the car anyway, just in case a punctured wheel does stick and you can’t shift it by whacking it with your fist 
Now you have done it, bringing a different grease into the, death to those that do group, so BMW have there own for just this job, well well well, so not a big of a no no as the death to those that do group think.
M-m
I had been toying with asking if there was a compound that would do all of the required things… But hadn’t dared…
Sold as brake pad lube, it’s a special white grease which IIRC contains some sort of rubber; it has a certain tackiness to it:
http://bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17341
I know the guy who wrote that post about the 54p sachets; he helped me with a few jobs on my old BMW 320d and left me with some of the stuff.