- Location
- Southern Maryland
I have the factory luggage rack, but a couple of the rivet nuts have worked loose and I'm trying to figure out options.
The stock threading on these is 6 mm, which is really uncommon--almost all of them are standard threading, and Fastenal can only buy the metrics in units of 1000... I would also need a bit for the rivet tool to pinch them in place, which will also be hard to come by.
My buddy with the body shop has the tool and some standard sized rivet nuts already, but if I went to standard sizes then I would need to cut them all off and replace them, which isn't really a big deal (the Dremel cuts the tops off smooth and fast) but it's not really the right fix either. I'm also not sure that the luggage rack rails will accommodate a larger bolt.
Another option is to make them super strong by tack welding some flange nuts to the ceiling. Then I could keep the 6mm nuts, and the rails would be able to support more of a load than the aluminum rivet nuts can safely handle. The big problem here is that space is very tight up there and I'm not sure I could get a welding tip in the gap.
I want to keep the stock rails, even though I plan to use gutter mounts.
Does anybody know a source for the OEM luggage rack rivet nuts? Maybe I can get some of those and fashion together a bit with a bolt and some nuts to pinch the rivet up.
The stock threading on these is 6 mm, which is really uncommon--almost all of them are standard threading, and Fastenal can only buy the metrics in units of 1000... I would also need a bit for the rivet tool to pinch them in place, which will also be hard to come by.
My buddy with the body shop has the tool and some standard sized rivet nuts already, but if I went to standard sizes then I would need to cut them all off and replace them, which isn't really a big deal (the Dremel cuts the tops off smooth and fast) but it's not really the right fix either. I'm also not sure that the luggage rack rails will accommodate a larger bolt.
Another option is to make them super strong by tack welding some flange nuts to the ceiling. Then I could keep the 6mm nuts, and the rails would be able to support more of a load than the aluminum rivet nuts can safely handle. The big problem here is that space is very tight up there and I'm not sure I could get a welding tip in the gap.
I want to keep the stock rails, even though I plan to use gutter mounts.
Does anybody know a source for the OEM luggage rack rivet nuts? Maybe I can get some of those and fashion together a bit with a bolt and some nuts to pinch the rivet up.