Here's a small dilemma I'm in the middle of-
I'm re-doing the interior of my 87. I used a vinyl covering on the door panel inserts. Here's a pic-
A few of the plastic studs on the backside were broken so I drilled them out with the idea of replacing them with 1/4 inch plastic rods, and then screw the thread-cutter nuts on to the new plastic rods.
But, of course, I can't find anybody who has the plastic rod. SO, l thought I'd make my own using a piece of 1/4 inch plastic tubing slid down over a 3/16 inch dowell. But that didn't work so well- the nut ate up the plastic tubing.
dumb idea anyway.
It looks like a 1/4" helicoil won't leave me enough boss wall . The boss is .510" dia. and the drill hole for the 1/4' insert is a .375" hole. If I drill for the 1/4" insert the wall will only be @ 1/16" thick. I'll use a 10-24 insert to get more wall thickness.
Sorry about that fuzzy picture. I guess I resized it a little bit too much...
After drilling the holes out to 9/32", I used a 5/16" lag bolt to put some threads in the hole. I put some threadlocker on the brass inserts and carefully threaded them into the plastic.
I attached the brass screws into the inserts to hold the panel. I had to cut the screws to 1/2" long.
And the finished look- I used a darker colored vinyl so it would match my seat. If it doesn't work out i guess I"ll start all over with a lighter colored vinyl...
And, finally. installed- thanks to Bd for his helpful suggestions so I could get this job done.
1
