HF Rivnut Tool and POM riveter

I recently bought both of these from HF
A threaded insert riveter kit #1210 (21.99) and a Poly hand riveter kit 97757 (16.99) for a project on my wife's JK.

I pulled the fenders and had them Line-X coated as part of a refresh project on my wife's 2007 JK Sahara Unlimited. When you pull them there are a number of POM rivets that hold the liner on that have to be replaced. The fender itself is held by a series of pop-in clips that I was no longer going to use. Instead, I used the rivnut tool to put 1/4-20 inserts into the body and reinstall the fenders with bolts rather than clips. When you Line-X plastic fenders, they have to be encapsulated, making them thicker. The clips were going to be very difficult, and likely impossible to use. They also let the fender rattle a little, so they were not a great method to begin with.

The guy I had do the Line-X was familliar with coating the Jeep fenders and did a great job pushing through all the holes I needed to use for remounting the fenders. If you are in Southern California and need Line-X work, I would certainly recommend Pasadena Line-X. He did a great job and charged me less than the local guy we have. I used the premuium Line-X that is UV resistant.

Here are the fenders



The good, the bad, and the ugly.

There isn't really any ugly in this case, but I will go to the good, real good in this case, first. The POM riveter worked great. The tool quality was very good, it was inexpensive, and did the job right each time I used it. I would highly recommend it. It came with an assortment of POM rivets, and HF carries more. I used the factory rivets I bought for re-installation, however, the ones that came with the tool looked to be good quality. everything seems to be snapped or popped together today, so I'm sure I will get more use out of this tool.




The Threaded insert riveter had a nice feel and appeared to be of good quality, however, it required a washer underneath the nose piece to pull the insert tight in sheet metal. The design ought to be better as that would seem like an easy problem to remedy. I would still recommend this tool, however, as it is much less expensive than other ones I looked at that appear to be the same re-branded tool. Also, the fix is as simple as a washer and it works well with that in place. HF does not carry additional inserts and they are not really easy to find at a brick and mortar. I bought some nice ones at a local specialty hardware store. If I wanted to wait a few days, I could have gotten them from Amazon for less. These worked great, though, and there was no wait. Again, if you are in So Cal and need specialty hardware for automotive, firearms, aircraft, etc., King Bolt in Covina has a lot. They are, however, truly old school. No website, no computerized anything, and they prefer cash. You have to call and the guy has to go look in the back for anything.

Here is how I used the washer


These are the inserts I used.

I cleaned out the threads with a tap after installation. Installation tends to distort the threads a tiny bit.

Finished



There are few more shots in my photos if you want to look. I am really happy with how it turned out. The rivnuts made the fenders rock solid and the whole installation came out clean. My wife wanted to keep the factory fenders and liners instead of using aftermarket ones. We also put new bumpers, sliders, and BFG KO's in 285 on it. The front clip was repainted because it, and the fenders were sun faded. We debadged it at the same time. The rest was in perfect shape. The JK is an 07, but it doesn't have quite 50K on it yet. It's always garaged too. It's a creampuff.

I might pull off a flare and see if I can do the same thing with my Tacoma. I really like the look of it, I would just need to see if remounting the flares can be done with the additional thickness.