Rivet nuts/nutcerts/rivnuts tips
JK Newbie
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
From: Charleston, WV
Got mine off amazon. Made by Marson, used it for my Nemesis flares and getting ready to put on my skins and rock rails with it. It's good for 3/8 and cost me about $90 bucks. Lots of nutserts to install, made it worth it for me. If your doing just a few, you might want to make your own. Some videos on YouTube show how. Good luck with your build!
JK Newbie
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 86
Likes: 0
From: North Carolina
I recently installed JCR OFFROAD sliders which require 10 nutserts per side on a 4 door. They give you 21 for good measure and to be honest it took about 7 before I felt comfortable installing them. JCR gives you a "tool" which works well enough; it is a properly sized bolt and an oversized nut (the bolt threads do not engage it) and two washers that you put in/through/on the box end of a box/open wrench. The pic shows the assembled tool.
You insert the nutsert in the drilled hole then tighten the bolt with a ratchet while holding the box/open wrench steady. The bolt compresses the nutsert against the washer/oversized nut while it pulls against its washer and the wrench. The trick is knowing when to stop compressing; gotta count rotations.
If you go with the improvised tool, definitely do as hillybilly says and watch some videos, read some write-ups to get the idea clear. If you can, get a few extra and test it out on some scrap metal to get the hang of it first. Over compression is the real problem because you have to grind the nutsert off which is a delicate operation on sheet metal.
You insert the nutsert in the drilled hole then tighten the bolt with a ratchet while holding the box/open wrench steady. The bolt compresses the nutsert against the washer/oversized nut while it pulls against its washer and the wrench. The trick is knowing when to stop compressing; gotta count rotations.
If you go with the improvised tool, definitely do as hillybilly says and watch some videos, read some write-ups to get the idea clear. If you can, get a few extra and test it out on some scrap metal to get the hang of it first. Over compression is the real problem because you have to grind the nutsert off which is a delicate operation on sheet metal.
JK Freak
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 844
Likes: 1
From: huntington beach CA
My experience with nutserts is limited to putting on my poison spyder fender flares. BUT,,,,,, I can tell all who would read this,,, they were kicking my ass until I started using my pneumatic impact gun. The directions and warnings of over tightening them scared me,,, but the impact wrench made very short work of getting the inserts seated. You just have to pay close attention to the feel. I was sweating my as off tightening by hand,, the impact gun did them effortlessly in 1/10th the time.... good luck to everyone
