GraemeC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 5:43 pm
You raise good points Mark. I think for me, the choice of a rivnut over a self tapper comes down to how often I think I may need to disassemble the joint as a self tapper into a hole inevitably gets looser every time.
This is largely why I fit them. I often need to disassemble bits if only for cleaning to ensure that rust doesn't set in for mud sitting in various nooks. Some of the areas I travel, the soils are reactive or have a very high iron content (that's how our outback gets it's red colour), if left, it will do damage. This idea that cars don't rust down under is a myth, they definitely do, only not as fast as they do in the UK
I use rivnuts in places where I expect to remove stuff regularly. Examples being the oil cooler for the supercharger on my hillclimber & the Benelite grille on my 1152 car. But I wouldn't think about fitting them in the name of making things rust less quickly.
