Spent the weekend getting my Radical ready for an eight hour enduro. The
last two hours are in the dark!! Yikes. My lighting system on the Radical
is kind of iffy, so I replaced all the push-in connectors with soldered
splices and replaced the through bolts on the plastic light covers with
rubber expansion nuts--which prompted me to drop a line to the group. I
don't know if everyone knows how handy these little buggers are for
sticking stuff onto your car. The best ones are fairly hard hollow rubber
plugs with a wide flange and a nut bonded to the bottom. You drill out the
hole so you can barely push them in. When you tighten a screw into the nut
on the bottom it expands the plug. all the advantages of a captured nut
without the welding. I've found the larger ones can handle a remarkable
load, especially if you back them up with a washer. I also like the nuts
that are designed to attach with brads to a piece of wood--they're disks
with a threaded dimple in the center. I drill the brad holes out to fit a
small steel pop rivet. I have a supplier here (a drug store!! has an ace
hardware store as part of it) that has them in stainless. I've also
glassed then into place and they work okay.
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