How to, repairing a hidden (blind) nut w/pics

[FFredo]

When I took the hood off of my 59 to get at some areas to repair I had an issue with one of the mounting bolts. On the hinges one of the bolts would just spin so I had to cut it off. Now that I am ready to install the repiared hood I had to fix the problem. This is the way I did it today, I'm sure there are other ways to do it. This just worked for me. Total time was about 30 minutes.
Problem: Unaccessable blind nut broken off of it's weld.

So to fix it I made a new blind nut and welded it into place. First I had to weld a nut to a patch piece. I didn't want to cut away at the hood brace/ hinge mounting plate. So I decided to use my step drill and make a hole that would fit a washer. I drilled the hole and sanded the area for welding.





Next I welded a nut to the back of the washer. Using a bolt will help hold the centered nut to the washer.



Then it was just a matter of placing the new patch and blind nut combo into the drilled hole. You'll notice that the washer sits a bit proud of the surface of the hood brace. This is intentional so it matches the original desing.



I ground down the welds on the washer area to keep the mounting surface even and added shade tree powder coating (paint while metal still hot)



And that's my how to on how to fix a busted off blind nut. I hope it helps those that are still learning DIY repairs.

[Kim57]

That's pretty slick.
Kim

[mr48chev]

Sweet, you probably just helped a half dozen board members save a hood that they had stashed away because it had a bad nut in it.

[coralhead]

Thanks for sharing that repair. I am finding missing weld nuts on my project '50 3/4 ton.

[craig32]

I'll have to give that a try, my 55 Bel Air is missing all four. Somebody riveted a thin flat bar over the holes and tapped them, not gonna fly with me!

[dicer]

Good fix.