Fasteners for 81 grills
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,266
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From: Allen, TX, USA
Fasteners for 81 grills
What fastens the 81 grill in place? No catalog carry's the screws.
What kind are they and the u-nuts?
Mine keeps falling out with the temporary screws...
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 2,386
Likes: 3
From: far, far away
Re: Fasteners for 81 grills (adam)
Hi, Adam,
I'm just speaking from memory here, so maybe I'm wrong... I seem to recall that the front grill inserts (two plastic pieces inside the front bumper) are mounted with plain ol' panhead sheet metal screws, going into plain ol' fashioned speed nuts. Of course, they're painted black.
And the side grill inserts in the rear of the front fender are similarly attached, although I vaguely recall that the screws are flat head; i.e., cone-shaped so as to fit flush into a cone-shaped hole. Same speed nuts.
I haven't had any trouble with mine coming loose. Maybe the speed nuts are stripped out?? New speed nuts are pretty easy to get, at Pep Boys or Lowe's Hardware.
Good luck with it! :seeya
I'm just speaking from memory here, so maybe I'm wrong... I seem to recall that the front grill inserts (two plastic pieces inside the front bumper) are mounted with plain ol' panhead sheet metal screws, going into plain ol' fashioned speed nuts. Of course, they're painted black.
And the side grill inserts in the rear of the front fender are similarly attached, although I vaguely recall that the screws are flat head; i.e., cone-shaped so as to fit flush into a cone-shaped hole. Same speed nuts.
I haven't had any trouble with mine coming loose. Maybe the speed nuts are stripped out?? New speed nuts are pretty easy to get, at Pep Boys or Lowe's Hardware.
Good luck with it! :seeya
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,266
Likes: 0
From: Allen, TX, USA
Re: Fasteners for 81 grills (Gator81)
Well, basically you remember what I'm using... Unfortunately the screws loosen
up with all the vibrations. Do you think locktite would help here?
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 2,386
Likes: 3
From: far, far away
Re: Fasteners for 81 grills (adam)
Probably not - on a typical speed nut, there's very little metal surface for the loctite to bond to. A speed nut is just a piece of sheet metal, folded into a clip shape. There's like one thread, total, for the sheet metal screw to hold on to. I'm no "fastener engineer" so take this for what little it's worth, but it appears to me that the important thing about a speed nut is the diameter of the hole. And if the screws have been in and out enough times, the hole gets reamed out, the speed nut gets loose and it just won't hold. So you need new speed nuts. But I'm just guessing as to whether that's really the problem.
I do know that when I did the total body repaint on my car, where I stripped all of those things off it (grills, lights, door handles, etc) I replaced every speed nut I could with new ones. Nothing has fallen off, and that was 5 or 6 years ago.
:cheers:
I do know that when I did the total body repaint on my car, where I stripped all of those things off it (grills, lights, door handles, etc) I replaced every speed nut I could with new ones. Nothing has fallen off, and that was 5 or 6 years ago.
:cheers:
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 4,077
Likes: 27
From: Northeast South Dakota
Re: Fasteners for 81 grills (Gator81)
Gator81 has it correct. I think that if your screws are coming loose it is a case of your screws not fitting into the speednuts tight enough. Either the speednuts are worn, or the screws are stripped a little, or the screws were always too small for the spednuts. Either way, I say go and get yourself some new speednuts at your local parts store, find some fresh screws that will work, and then try it again. It should work alright.
-Justin
-Justin
