Rear lower fender nuts 65
 

I am working on getting everything together to mount the fenders. I discovered the rear lower nuts on mt 65 that are inide the lower cowl need replacing as one is missing and the other has a broken stud in it. Does antyoneknow where to get a couple of these? Or what a good fix is? These need to float in position for fender adjusting.

I assume and believe that 65 is the same as my 64 and you are speaking of the cage nuts. Any vender, including our host sells them. As their name suggests, these are nuts that are captured in a cage that surrounds the square nut so that it can't spin, but is loose enough to make adjustments. Unfortunately the only fix is to cut open the outer cowl to be able to remove the old nut and cage and then place the nut and weld in a new cage. Then you have to patch the access hole you cut. I used a thin cut off wheel and just welded the original sheet metal back in.

Thanks. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I have the same exact issue with my ‘64 Le Mans.

I’ve searched using every term I could think of and haven’t found these anywhere so far, the only cage nuts I’ve seen for sale are for the body to frame mounting points in the floor pan.

Does anyone have a link or vendor part number?

I'm working on a '65 now and have a couple of brand new body mount cage nuts in front of me - they are 7/16-14. Ames Part number (cage/nut combo) S387DC.

The lower fender mount looks to be 3/8-16 (mine are both broken off almost flush). I see a couple of different 3/8-16 cage nuts on ebay that might work (or be modified) to work. Item #204392502632 or Item#195018326792. Looks like the only way to really know what is going on is to cut an access panel/flap in that area, which looks like it will be necessary for such a repair anyway.

I still have a couple of 'nubs' left on my bolts so will probably still try to extract them by welding on a nut, heating and melting wax, etc. if I can - major surgery will be a last resort but will probably end up being the solution looking at how bad these are rusted together.

The RH bottom fender bolt broke off on my '64. Before cutting the sheet metal, I thought I'd give drilling out the bolt remnants and re-tapping the cage nut. I was successful but it wasn't easy as I don't own a lift. Pick your poison!

Hi BDK1976 Just looked up that number on the Ames site and no luck. I looked in the GM parts manual and it said they were 1/4" but that seems kind of small.

The 3/8" cage nuts I mentioned are on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204392502632

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195018326792


These are body mounts cage nuts (7/16") from Ames (too large/incorrect for the lower fender bolts)

https://www.amesperf.com/parts/38588/

The Ebay ones are the ones i need after taking in the actual way they are mounted. Thanks