The price of the cage nuts is out of control, complete supply vs demand thing. I have searched and cannot find a source with a reasonable price. Small rivnuts (cannot recall 3mm or 4mm) will do the same job and you can buy 25 of them for about $8. My E9 does have cage nuts but the E21 I am restoring, cage nuts were fused and had to be cut. Interested in opinions, let it fly!
Rivnuts for Mirrors...Is It Blasphemy?
- Thread starter bavbob
- Start date
Mirror cage nut, BMW series E10 E9 E3 E12, new!
M4 cage nut for mirror fixing, BMW series: E10 15 - 2002 New Class, 1800 - 2000 TiLux E9 2.5 - 3.0 CSi E3 2500 - 3.3Li E21 316 -…
shopware.bmw-oldtimerteile.de
jmackro
Well-Known Member
Why not use rivnuts? I can't imagine a concours judge removing your mirrors to verify that the car has the correct type of hardware.
I used rivnuts on my recent restoration, though this was decided more by necessity than cost: the holes had been enlarged and wouldn't support the cagenuts.
3 mm seems awfully small for this application. But the hardware size will be determined by the size of the hole in the door. Rivnuts that accept various screw sizes will have barrels whose outer diameters vary. As I recall, I had to use a 5 mm rivnut in one spot because the hole in the sheet metal had been drilled fairly large by a previous owner.
I used rivnuts on my recent restoration, though this was decided more by necessity than cost: the holes had been enlarged and wouldn't support the cagenuts.
bavbob said:
3 mm seems awfully small for this application. But the hardware size will be determined by the size of the hole in the door. Rivnuts that accept various screw sizes will have barrels whose outer diameters vary. As I recall, I had to use a 5 mm rivnut in one spot because the hole in the sheet metal had been drilled fairly large by a previous owner.
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Cage nuts are way too weak, I just use small chrome sheet metal screws, just move the mirror a few mm.
I have rivnuts on the passenger side mirror that I added. They are completely hidden by the mirror base.
I'll be doing rivnuts, too. Just way to easy and pretty tough. Some of mine were drilled out, too. I'd be afraid of sheet metal screws wiggling loose. I've had that happen on many other applications.
Well, I have memorized all the names and cars in case I become a concourse judge! Seriously, thanks for the response, rivnuts it is.
My E9 seat base M6 caged nuts all broke loose and I discovered rivnuts for this purpose also. The e21 I am working on has all the door brake supports in the body rounded out so I am going to try and use rivnuts there as well, should be interesting.
My E9 seat base M6 caged nuts all broke loose and I discovered rivnuts for this purpose also. The e21 I am working on has all the door brake supports in the body rounded out so I am going to try and use rivnuts there as well, should be interesting.
I would not recommend rivnuts... At least not how my car was done.
My car is back at the body shop (as I type this) to have the door repaired and mirror replaced. See pic....
Besides the mirror falling off, the door skin is deformed. This deformation is now visible outside of what was covered by the mirror base. I did not see that damage before the mirror departed (the second time). The first time the mirror fell off, there was nothing outside of the mirror base that caused me any concern.
Not sure what fastener specifically was used (and Don didn't recognize it either) - but it is NOT doing the job. To me - it looks like a rivnut to me. Grrrrrrr.....
It appears that the door skin is not thick enough to resist pullout (that or there was not anything backing up the skin from the rear? Don't know what the installation here requires). Either way - what was done did not cut it.
I despise rivnuts... LOL
I say this as I had to use them sometimes when I designed repairs for airplanes and had no other choice due to access or space issues.
We could not use them on primary or even secondary structure - but only on interior items. They fail, they spin, they pull out, they are just evil. Every time I had to use one and it worked - I felt like I won the lottery. The rest of the time (and that was very often) - I'd have to do a more involved repair.
From there - will see how the door looks after the body shop takes care of this...
My car is back at the body shop (as I type this) to have the door repaired and mirror replaced. See pic....
Besides the mirror falling off, the door skin is deformed. This deformation is now visible outside of what was covered by the mirror base. I did not see that damage before the mirror departed (the second time). The first time the mirror fell off, there was nothing outside of the mirror base that caused me any concern.
Not sure what fastener specifically was used (and Don didn't recognize it either) - but it is NOT doing the job. To me - it looks like a rivnut to me. Grrrrrrr.....
It appears that the door skin is not thick enough to resist pullout (that or there was not anything backing up the skin from the rear? Don't know what the installation here requires). Either way - what was done did not cut it.
I despise rivnuts... LOL
I say this as I had to use them sometimes when I designed repairs for airplanes and had no other choice due to access or space issues.
We could not use them on primary or even secondary structure - but only on interior items. They fail, they spin, they pull out, they are just evil. Every time I had to use one and it worked - I felt like I won the lottery. The rest of the time (and that was very often) - I'd have to do a more involved repair.
From there - will see how the door looks after the body shop takes care of this...
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Oh man…I hate hearing that..I wouldn’t use rivnuts in any structural situation, for sure. That pic doesn’t exactly look like a rivnut head, though..maybe it is..but is that body filler that’s all cracked up around it? Yikes..looks like someone pulled it through the body..did the mirror get yanked? Sorry that’s happening..:-/
Your description of your trials and tribulations reminded me of an Audi A6 I used to own................
Wladek
Well-Known Member
I would not recommend rivnuts either - saw the same thing on the other doors as lip277 showed.
sorry that happened. Hope you get it sorted easily and does not become a bigger deal!
Presuming factory backing/reinforcing plates still NLA from BMW, someone in the group should look into reproductions. Since can also be used on 2002 and e21 seems there would be a good market. Think they came with electric mirror retrofit kits.
That would be very hard to install.