I was replacing the mirrors on my truck when the rivets started spinning. I was wondering what the fix would be? Where do I find new ones?

 

What rivets?

 

https://www.rivetsonline.com/open-en...-steel-mandrel

 

I'm guessing he means nutserts or rivnuts. You can source them all over the internet. You'll probably need to remove the door panels to hold them in place to unscrew from the outside.

 

Oh, "nut serts"? I used some 1" wide steel, 3/16" thick, cut 4 pieces plenty long enough, 6" anyway,, and drilled and tapped two holes in each for 1/4-20 threads. 2" apart on two, and 2-3/4" apart on the other two. Then I inserted a bolt, then snugged, not tight, a nut on the exposed thread and welded the nut to the steel.. I ended up with 1/2" thread or more. I run a tap through to clean the threads. Then I used them inside my doors. Prime and paint them too. I did pop rivet two small rivets between the bolt holes to the door to keep them from dropping away if I have mirrors off.

I use stainless steel bolts with never sieze to hold the mirrors in place.

Nut serts are easy to find, and one could upsize if the holes are loose, use 5/16-18 ... get the install tool from Advance or other auto parts. I made my tool to pull them tight using nuts and greased washer and grade 8 bolt. .

In 1989 I replaced the then rusty bolts with what I thought were smooth trick looking 1/4-20 stainless steel button headed socket screws. Glad I used washers though. I had done that in 1989, and in 2022 I had to take a grinder to the button heads to remove my mirrors, the rusting of the nut serts had frozen the screws in the original Ford inserts. The washers let me grind / drill the heads off of the screws without damage to my mirror mounts.

This time I put nickel anti-seize on the threads, and used hex head stainless steel bolts, still 1/4-20.

 

Riv nuts or Nut-serts, once they break loose from the door skin (and spin, you know there are only swelled into the outer door skin). You will have to hold them (from the back side) if you want to still use them. Yes with the inner door panel off you can get some pliers or needle nose vice grips to hold them from spinning when installing the mirror hdwr. If you want to remove them BE careful because you can mess up the hole removing them and then you will have to upsize the hole and the Riv nut. Riv nut/Nut serts kits and installation tool all over the web.

 

Thank you all for the help, how do I know what size to get? How do I know they will fit?

 

You may not need to replace them or even pull the door panels off.
Get a long threaded bolt that fits the nut sert in the door, a nut and 3 or 4 flat washers.
Put the nut on the bolt, use a little grease on the threads, then the flat washers, again grease between the washers and screw the bolt into the nut sert making sure the threads get all of the nut sert.

Now tighten the nut on the bolt. With the grease it should turn easy.
The washers should push the outer part of the nut sert and the bolt the inner part compressing the door skin between the nut sert.

The other way is to have a nut sert pop rivet tool and that is $$$ for a 1 time use.
BTW this is how LMC tells you to do it when you get mirrors from them and it works as I had to do 4 of them after I repainted my truck.
Dave ----

 

I do not know the size, but they will be smaller than the hole until you "install" them with that $$ tool. Once you get the tool and get some inserts, be careful you will find all kinds of applications for those nut-serts.

 

My originals in my original doors were 1/4-20 threads.

 

I'm gunna try this today! Hoping this works. Thank you all for the help!