Drilling wheelarch for rivnuts?

[Crandag]

Looking at fitting some rivnuts to the wheel arches for securing some furniture. Rivnuts so furniture is more easily removed when needed. There’s a factory metal plate on the drivers side that means I won’t need to drill through the arch itself. But, the passenger side doesn’t have the same plate.

What will I find if I was to drill a hole in the skin of the arch? Assuming it goes directly to the exterior, shielded by the exterior trim?

Crude scribbling on the photo is where I’m hoping to drill.

 

[Paynewright]

I wouldn’t - it will compromise the rust resistance.

Can you not get a fixing into the steel around / behind the interior panels? I noticed quite a lot of hex shaped holes that will take a hex rivnut?

 

[JOG]

You’d be relying on the trim to provide waaaay more protection than it’s designed for, I reckon.

 

[Loz]

Could you bond(Sikaflex) a strip of aluminium with some threaded holes into that recess where you marked?

 

[Crandag]

Could you bond(Sikaflex) a strip of aluminium with some threaded holes into that recess where you marked?

This! Maybe some L-track. Just need a suitable fitting.

 

[Paynewright]

Could you bond(Sikaflex) a strip of aluminium with some threaded holes into that recess where you marked?

Or even weld a steel plate on to mimick the other side. I think 4 or 6 holes in the new plate filled with weld. Then just repaint the other side.

That said there are some extremely strong automotive epoxy adhesives used to bond bits of chassis, though I would use a bit of steel - rivnuts will pull out of ally quite easily.