I'm working on my 74 grabber restoration and found that the passenger door needed to go. I found a replacement door from a late 73 sedan that's in great shape. I will remove the chrome strip but I need to mount my grabber sport mirror on this door. Surely someone out there has run into this before! I've been told there is a "kit" to do this, can anyone help?
They use a rivnut, which requires a special tool to install. Most body shops have them. If you mark & center punch the hole locations, I would bet most places would install a couple for you cheaply. I have been fortunate to borrow the tool from a friend in the business whenever I have had to install one.
There is a cool little thing called a NUTSERT or a RIVNUT It works a bit like a pop rivet. You drill the right size pilot hole and then using a special tool that looks like a pop rivet gun, you just slip the nutset into the hole, squeeze the tool and leave behind a mounted threaded nut that the mirror bolts to. Just like the factory mounts. A local shop may have a tool you can check out. I have a couple tools and find them very handy. The nutserts come in aluminum and stainless steel. I use the steel for mirror mounts.
I was typing whle you were posting ............. I agree, borrowing a tool from a friend is a great idea .... if you can find someone that has one.
Cool deal, now will be interesting to see if I can find the deal around here. Surely the guy doing my body work has one or knows where to get it. On top of the door I came up with a passenger fender (that I don't really need) a trunk lid (that I also may not need), a 73 am radio (that I dont' need), and a lot of other stuff he wants me to take. All I have to do is drive 3 hours.
I bought the harbor freight one and the tool fell apart after the first use, I returned it and got the regular rivet one and it lasted a while longer but failed after like the 10th time. This is how I ended up installing mine: http://www.fjr1300.info/howto/rivnut-tool.html
I've seen the washer/nut/bolt trick before. It does work well when you only have a couple to do but it does get a little trickier to get a feel for the install, so you don't over tighten it and smoosh it. Even with the right tool the first couple ones you do usually end up over tightened and ruined. There is a small learning curve to get a feel for the movement of the tool and it is easy to over tighten them and wreck the nutsert, specially with the aluminum ones. The ones I use on mirrors is a yellow zinc steel - 10/24 UNC threads. Factory look replacement mirror bolts are sold at any Mustang place or AK.
