options for unarmored body holes

Did a couple searches and nothing immediately came up on this. After side armor is removed during demil the body is left with holes. A couple have a nut/threaded backing, most just the aluminum body drilled out. What are some things you guys have done for a better cosmetic effect?

I installed rivnuts followed with the bolts, washers, and rubber washers to help deter water intrusion.

I used 1/2" hex bolts and washers for the through holes, and 3/8" bolts for the hinge holes.

Use quality grade 8 fasteners and antiseize for anything that goes in a threaded hole in case you ever want to be able to remove it.

I got these


Here are others

Carriage bolts. Look more like rivets.

Obtain some aluminum sheet same gauge as the body, cut into 1” circles, JB Weld in place from the inside, fill remaining hole with more JB Weld?

Maybe you could fabricate some jack rails to cover the holes.

If you are crazy like me and enjoy tig welding:

1-drill out with a step bit so you have perfect round hole
2-gently use a clean & strip disc on a grinder to disappear the paint nearby (clean both sides, wear a mask)
3-punch or hole-saw an aluminum plug to fill the hole. I like 10 guage 5052 for the plug, so i can simply flow it down to the thinner body guage when welding. it also allows the plug to be hammered a little bit thinner/wider if you need to enlarge the plug a bit to fit tightly.
4-clamp copper behind the hole/plug so you can really sink the weld in without worrying about blowing it out. (the weld wont stick to copper))
5-tig weld the perimeter of the plug
6-rough grind with an aluminum grinding disc, finish with a flap disc.

Admittedly I like welding and have the stuff. It produces a perfect result. But it's stupid time-consuming. Takes me a couple of hours to do about 10 holes and that's my limit for a day. So it took me several days to vanish all the MAK armor holes in my 1123

Panel bond is amazing stuff and wont warp your panels.

NDT said:

Obtain some aluminum sheet same gauge as the body, cut into 1” circles, JB Weld in place from the inside, fill remaining hole with more JB Weld?

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Certified JB welder!

I tried the welding thing and it ruined my fender and caused a whole catastrophe because there are no driver side rear fenders in the world apparently. The problem is many of the holes are double and triple walled and there is no way to remove the glue thats between them so as soon as the area heats up the stuff shoots out and contaminates the weld. I glued 1/8" aluminum shapes on the inside of the fender with panel bonding glue from a body shop then filled the hole on the front with direct to metal reinforced body filler. I haven't painted it yet but it seems like its working well . You have to remove all the paint from the inside fender where the patch is and rough up both sides of the patch

Vapor Trail said:

I tried the welding thing and it ruined my fender and caused a whole = catastrophe because there are no driver side rear fenders in the world apparently. The problem is many of the holes are double and triple walled and there is no way to remove the glue thats between them so as soon as the area heats up the stuff shoots out and contaminates the weld. I glued 1/8" aluminum shapes on the inside of the fender with panel bonding glue from a body shop then filled the hole on the front with direct to metal reinforced body filler. I haven't painted it yet but it seems like its working well . You have to remove all the paint from the inside fender where the patch is and rough up both sides of the patch

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This reinforces my decision to just use hex bolts

Might have been a bit overkill, but 1/2 and 3/8 stainless round cap allens.

Rob T. said:

Maybe you could fabricate some jack rails to cover the holes.

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Rob T. said:

Maybe you could fabricate some jack rails to cover the holes.

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I like the 2nd option.
Or find some M1114
Aluminum overlay pieces. Might have to cut the pie shaped piece off in the middle because it won't look right with it.

Autonomy_Lost said:

This reinforces my decision to just use hex bolts

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Yes. I can MIG, flux, and stick weld; but not TIG as well.

Looks great! In my hands, thick body filler over time tends to crack. Lead might work BUT you need a respirator.

JB weld soaked gauze might also do the trick.

TOBASH said:

Looks great! In my hands, thick body filler over time tends to crack. Lead might work BUT you need a respirator.

JB weld soaked gauze might also do the trick.

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Im hoping for the best. It’s only 1/16” thick for the most part. A lot of the holes were filled up with the super hard epoxy body panel glue so I roughed it up and went over it with the filler

I tried carriage bolts initially but didn't like the look and they don't lend themselves to tightening up well in this application since it is just a hole. I went with flat Allen head 3/8"-16 (NC) stainless steel 3/4" length bolts. It isn't perfect, but it looks much better. Anyone like this idea?

taskunitbruiser said:

I tried carriage bolts initially but didn't like the look and they don't lend themselves to tightening up well in this application since it is just a hole. I went with flat Allen head 3/8"-16 (NC) stainless steel 3/4" length bolts. It isn't perfect, but it looks much better. Anyone like this idea?

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Those look amazing!