The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Door Panel Retainer Nuts

We are working to finish the interior trim in a '49 3100. We are having difficulty finding replacement parts for the captive style nuts that hold the lower panel on the forward edge of each door. Some of them broke out when the truck was disassembled.

These are the panels that cover access hole and the bolts that attach the lower hinge to the door. The hardware is 1/4-20 screws. My searches lead me to pictures of the door interior panel but no close-ups of the nuts or details about them.

Are these regular "cage" nuts or are they some type of "rivnut" that expands to fill the hole?

Where can we buy them?

Many thanks for the ideas and help!

Those nuts are pressed into the sheet metal. Similar to these. But the problem is being able to press them in place in the completed door. They can be replaced by weld nuts, similar tothese.. Or you could carefully tack in standard hex nuts. I used some of their low-profile narrow-base weld nuts to replace some of the captive nuts on my right inner fender where it's bolted to the floor.

Since their on the door covered by the access panel, why not use a rivet nut. There is a kit on Jeg’s really reasonable. I sure you would also find them on eBay and Amazon too. No access or welding needed and nobody is the wiser!
[LINK]

Hi Phil and Kevin,

Many thanks for the great inputs and ideas as well as prompt responses.

Your suggestions give us some alternatives to consider. We are probably past the stage where we can easily do any welding. The door has been finish painted.

I like the both cinch (press) nut and rivnut approach.

I will be with the owner and working on the truck tomorrow so we will decide how to proceed.

Since it's already painted, I would go with rivnuts as Phil suggested. Those are also available from McMaster Carr. And you don't have to buy a ton of them. Link
I used some on my daughter's Jetta a few years back and the kit I installed included a flat piece of aluminum that was used to crush them in place using a bolt and washer that was greased up. So McMaster's $30 manual installation tool wasn't needed.

Thanks Kevin.

I had forgotten that I used a large (12mm) riven to attach a steel under tray on a VW New Beetle convertible. You are correct that you do not need the special setting tool. They make it easier if you are doing a lot them but not cost effective to set only a few.

They make a smaller tool.

The tool that came with the Jetta skid plate install was just a flat piece of aluminum with the appropriate sized hole in it. I recall it had some serrations around the hole on the side that goes toward the rivnut flange to help keep the nut from turning until it grabbed the hole it was inserted in. Would be pretty easy to fab one of those. Cheap too!

Steve, the truck owner, found these fasteners in stock at our local NAPA. They worked great for this application.

Good to know and I glad it worked out for you!