Side Skirt Screws Loose/Missing

[pokeyl]

Half of my side skirt exhaust cover, bottom screws are stripped out or missing. The others work loose each time I race the car.

The fix is the rivet-in nut plate???

You can see how it works.

You must be registered for see images attach

Tools drill, crimpers from amazon

You must be registered for see images attach

This is the finished install. 14 total to do both sides.

You must be registered for see images attach

System works perfect.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Now all the screws are gone and I have 1/4x20 bolts and fender washers, much stronger. I'll see if anything falls out at the next race.


4 hours start to finish! Total Time!!!

 

[Steve M]

Did this mod about 3 years ago...it's worked great ever since.

One word of caution: if you use stainless steel fasteners/washers, beware that stainless combined with the aluminum sills can lead to galvanic corrosion in the presence of water (which will happen any time you wash your car because it gets trapped there).

My solution to help with that was to create some custom washers out of high temp silicone rubber sheet, specifically this stuff:

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

It's rated to 425°F (218°C for folks that don't like freedom units), so it can tolerate the heat that the sills generate. Put your stainless washer on top of the sheet, cut around it with a razor, and voila: custom rubber washer/insulator.

I also used some ARP assembly lube on the stainless steel threads.

Before I did this, I would get tea staining on the stainless threads and washers, and white crusties on the aluminum sills.

Again, this only matters if you use stainless fasteners.

 

[MoparMap]

I did this as well, though the main issue I've had lately is that the threads have gunked up or galled or something on a few of them and made it tough to get bolts in or out. I think it's the stainless problem that Steve mentioned, though I thought I also actually picked stainless nuts to go with my stainless hardware to try to limit that at least (would still have an issue with the sills, but should be okay for the thread interface). I may have also just not gotten the best nuts or drilled the holes for them as close to spec as I should have. I've tried tightening them up, but I can't clamp on the installer tool any harder. Might be worth looking into steel fasteners with a really high quality coating instead.

 

[GTS Dean]

You should be able to source 1/4-20 galvanized bolts and washers pretty easily for corrosion resistance. The OE self-tappers are galvanized.