Rechroming headlight shells

[Peter Freiberger]

The headlight shell on my '72 GT had been painted black over the bad chrome. But the headlight mounts seem to be aluminum and riveted in with brass (?) plugs. Should they be removed and then replaced with small round head screws in place of the rivets (I'm not a stickler for 100% authenticity)? Any other wisdom on this?

Peter Freiberger

[BevHevSteve]

Hi Peter,

On the shells that I have restored, either painted or rechromed, I have drilled out the rivots to remove the bracket thing, done what needed to be done [chrome or paint] then reattach the bracket thing[s] with something that looked like a rivit head but had threads like a wierd nut. The top of the head is very low profile smoothe and round, under the head there are little ridges that bite into your material to keep it from spinning. I forget what they are actually called, but I want to call them rivit nuts from memory?????

You can get these at a harley davidson shop as they used them to attach fenders to the brackets on their older bikes. They work great and look the part and best of all are removable. Don;t forget to use lock tite...

[dlearl476]

They're called "Nutserts", and you can get them from any Wurth dealer.[/url]

[BevHevSteve]

no, I am not talking about nutserts. Nut serts are like a nut, that is attached [rivited on] to sheet metal, it is threaded like the female thread of a nut. What i am talking about are like a bolt, but the head of the bolt looks like a rivet.