Replacing cage/captive nuts?

[dhvidston]

Greetings

Looking to replace cage nuts that were twisted out of radiator support sheet metal...

Anyone have experience replacing these square cage or captive (?) nuts

that are used to fasten the headlight brackets to the rad. support?

Thanks

Doug in Indy

 

[c9zx]

Greetings

Looking to replace cage nuts that were twisted out of radiator support sheet metal...

Anyone have experience replacing these square cage or captive (?) nuts

that are used to fasten the headlight brackets to the rad. support?

Thanks

Doug in Indy

Just tack weld a replacement square nut from the back side of the core support. Chuck

 

[72HCODE]

you basically have to get them from another core support and you tack weld them in place. usually the core support has much more rot then missing or stripped nuts and you end up cutting the entire core support out and replacing it along with the engine bay aprons and battery tray.

a quick fix is just installing nuts on the back of the panel as you assemble the front end and squeezing everything together when you tighten down.

 

[Spike Morelli]

Greetings

Looking to replace cage nuts that were twisted out of radiator support sheet metal...

Anyone have experience replacing these square cage or captive (?) nuts

that are used to fasten the headlight brackets to the rad. support?

Thanks

Doug in Indy

On my '71, I had the same dilemma, after a small fender bender that hit my right front fender. The radiator support there at the battery was crushed back, as well as the headlamp cage. A friend and bodyman pulled my radiator support back in place and did most of the straightening, but I noticed that the square captive nuts had pulled through and were still attached to the bolts on the bent up headlamp cage. All I did was to hammer and dolly the area better, where the nut goes, did a tiny bit of shaping the rectangular hole in the support with a small file so the nut would just fit. If you look closely at the square nut, it is a rectangle, and is held in place on the short sides, which are not flat, but slightly angled in. If you put the nut in place in the radiator support, you can then strike the sheet metal on an angle, in towards the nut, with a 3/8ths wide chisel, right there at the short side. I found that the nut locked right in as it was before. The extent of damage to the hole is the only thing I can think of that will keep anyone from having the same outcome as I had.