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The hood on my 54 has a course thread nut welded in place in the hinge pocket. I bought the hood used this way. I am currently using a course thread bolt with a washer as you see in the picture.
Shall I cut this nut out and install a nutsert I got from Mid-Fifty? The nut-sert is fine threaded so I can use the correct fine-thread hinge shoulder bolt.
Will a nut-sert with stand the dynamics of the hood hinge movement? Has anyone else used this hood hinge repair kit on their truck?
Nut certs save the day. Back in my prime we had 100 or so school buses that back in
the 1970s all operators were required to install those parabolic mirrors on the front fenders which we all see now. Problem was, fenders have an inner fender, so no way
to nut and bolt them to get your fingers in there. The owner my uncle was always buying things from bus magazines. These we never saw before So he bought 100s
of these. Three certs per mirror. kids will be kids they swung on these while crossing
in front of the bus which the driver could see. We never had any failures at all with that punishment..........
I use nutserts all the time with great success. I will offer one word of caution, the diameter of the hole that you drill must be accurate or the nutsert will not clamp in place correctly. I have inserted many a nutsert using the bolt and nut technique that is in the MidFifty instructions with varying degrees of success...if you really want the best job invest in an insertion tool. I bought a tool online that handles a variety of sizes of nutserts and it makes short work of the insertion process. Here is one for example...
Abe, I used the nut cert from Mid fifty for my hood. They work, But word of caution. The tool that they give you to Hold it in place while you tighten it does not work well. Later, I had to do a repair on my daily driver in the bed. I bought a regular Nutcert tool.
It works real good and fast. Had I know about those tools when I did my hood, I would have gotten one then.
Mid Fifty also sells an oversized 3/8" hood bolt. I have a couple of stripped hood nuts I got back to working again by using a repair tap, a new hood bolt with Loctite, then safety wiring them together. After 3 years they still are good. But the next time my hood is off, I am thinking about just drilling and re-tapping them all for 3/8". As much as my hood goes up and down I figure the larger diameter bolts would help.
I used nut inserts on the top hole in the bed stake pocket for the top taillight bracket bolts. I used an insert tool / inserts from Mcmaster. For safe measure I added two small tack welds to each insert to keep them from twisting.
The steel ones are handier than a shirt pocket... the aluminum not so much.. use them for light duty stuff, the threads tend to strip out when tightening..
The steel ones are handier than a shirt pocket... the aluminum not so much.. use them for light duty stuff, the threads tend to strip out when tightening..
john
Agreed, the Aluminum ones are pretty handy sometimes for non-stress fastening only.
They also make two versions, which I didn't see anyone mention. They make flush mount, which is in Abe's picture and they also make a shouldered one, which I feel is stronger but will not work in all applications. Ford used them factory on Mustangs and other models for holding steering components, so yes I trust them.
Mid Fifty also sells oversize hood hinge bolts. They are 3/8" fine thread instead of 5/16" fine thread. I used them on my hood instead of installing nutserts to repair damages threads. Simply drill the existing hole to the correct size for a 3/8" fine thread tap, then rethread.
Another possibility is to drill the nut to inistall a 5/16" fine thread heli-coil insert.
I'd be concerned with not getting the nutserts installed in the correct location after those welded on nuts and flat washers are removed.
I just bought some steel ones from Fastenal for my hood. Haven’t installed them so no feed back to give ya, but at less than a buck and a half apiece I thought it was worth a try. But I’m looking for a 17/64 drill. What’s up with that? Oh yeah mine are shouldered.
