Rear Fender Flare Fasteners

[Brummer]

I was IMMENSELY frustrated with how stupid it was to remove the rear fender flares. As I’m sure y’all know, only the front 2 and rear 1 are actually bolts that thread into threaded inserts, the rest are screws that screw into stupid Flat plastic “nuts” that spin when you try to unscrew the screws. So you have to remove the inner fender well to remove the flares. Dumb. As well, the rear bolt on both sides was corroded into the threaded insert and broke when I tried to unscrew them.

Once I had everything apart, I drilled every hole out to 19/64” and installed 5mm threaded inserts into every hole. Now, the flares will be mounted with zero of those screws and all 5mm X 16mm bolts I got from NAPA. WAY WAY BETTER.

The 1st photo shows the first 2 threaded inserts installed, with the old screw holes also visible. The 2nd photo is obviously a close up of one of the threaded inserts installed.

 

[grumblebee]

I'm in the process of taking off all the fender flares on mine and have been wondering what to use when I reinstall so it's not such a pain if I need them off again. Someone had already put threaded inserts into the three holes in front of the driver's door on the front, and I was thinking about installing them all the way around. How do these work? is there a specific brand name? is a special tool required to insert them?

 

[Brummer]

I'm in the process of taking off all the fender flares on mine and have been wondering what to use when I reinstall so it's not such a pain if I need them off again. Someone had already put threaded inserts into the three holes in front of the driver's door on the front, and I was thinking about installing them all the way around. How do these work? is there a specific brand name? is a special tool required to insert them?

That’s how dumb this is - the MANUFACTURER put those threaded inserts in but not for the next 5. Then one in the back.
Yes - it’s a special river tool called... wait for it... a Threaded Insert Rivet Tool.

As I said - you need to put 5 mm threaded inserts in to match the ones that are already there. At lease in Canada that’s what they are. Check the thread on the 3 bolts that you pulled out of the existing threaded inserts and match them.

 

[GEEP4ME]

How do these work? is there a specific brand name? is a special tool required to insert them?

If you know how a pop rivet works, then imagine the rivet without the center stud, and the outside part is threaded inside itself. Instead of the tool grabbing the pop rivet stud, imagine the tool threading into the rivet (or threaded insert or riv-nut).

I watched a couple of extremeterrain.com videos on flares. Spotted a number on the tool he was using and bought the same off ebay. Linky link

Worked well for the 3 or 4 I needed to replaced when I did my flares a couple weeks back.

 

[Lou]

I never found the factory plastic “nuts” difficult. I’ve removed tons by holding the plastic with my fingers and buzzing the screw out with a milwaukee 1/4” electric ratchet. It’s always the factory rivnuts that give me issues.

 

[Vay]

I never found the factory plastic “nuts” difficult. I’ve removed tons by holding the plastic with my fingers and buzzing the screw out with a milwaukee 1/4” electric ratchet. It’s always the factory rivnuts that give me issues.

Call me crazy but I actually like the plastic nuts. To the point that i bought a bunch and replaced all the nutserts with them so that my flares are now held on by only plastic nuts. No more worrying about breaking tiny rusty bolts off in the nutserts

 

[Vidar]

I too didn’t have issue with the plastic nuts. My issue was with tall the nutserts they used at the factory. Those all rusted on my Jeep so I had to grind the heads off in order to remove the flares. Since you can’t replace the nutserts with he plastic nuts since several of them are “blind” I replaced everything with 5mm rivnuts like you did. I used all stainless steel since I’m in rusty pennsylvania. Got everything pretty cheap off Amazon.