Dealing with self tapping bolts

Well i've been running the Appalachian-offroad transfer case skid for a few years now and its done alright besides getting slightly bent, but hey thats what its there for right?

Now onto my question, over the years I've taken the skid on and off for various reasons and the 6 self tapping bolts have gotten looser and looser each and every time. I'm not to sure if anyone sells different size self tapping bolts other then the ones I've recieved with this skid and my AJ rails as there the same size. Do you think I could just get a normal bolt that is slightly larger and use an impact to drive it in? Mayb have a buddy of mine just put a small bead or a tack weld on each hole before bolting it all up so its a little smaller? Just get the self tappers in and get a few small tacks/beads that can just be broken or grinded off with a chisel? Any other ideas?

I know the best thing would be to somehow make a nut strip and get it inside the frame rail but that doesn't solve how its mounted on the crossmember, it has 3 bolts going in horizontally into the crossmember and 3 going vertically into the frame rail. If anyone has any ideas preferably with regards to reusing the self tappers please post up!

Time-cert?

How about some proper nutcerts?

How could I get one of those time certs to actually thread into the unibody with it only being like 10gauge or whatever it is?

How are nutcerts put in place?

XGarfX said:

How could I get one of those time certs to actually thread into the unibody with it only being like 10gauge or whatever it is?
How are nutcerts put in place?

Click to expand...

Nutserts are kind of like big pop-rivets. It gets compressed and expanded, trapping itself in the sheet metal.
Buy quality steel nutserts, stay away from the cheaper aluminum ones. I get them from McMaster-Carr.
Commercial installation tools are very expensive so Google 'installing nutserts' for how to make a installation tool out of simple hardware. Check the You Tube videos too.

Be aware that the bigger ones, such as 3/8" will require a lot of elbow grease and several sets of bolts and washer to install as many nutserts as you need.

http://www.318ti.org/notebook/nutserts/index.html


http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/frame-sidestep-nutsert-inserts-883094/