For the life of me I can't remember what they're called, but they've got
them in the "Fasteners" section at my local HQ (Home Quarters - big store
like Home Depot, only green instead of orange)...

They're like short rubber tubes with a flange at one end and a nut embedded
at the other. The dia. of the tube should be the same size as the hole in
the metal. Push the little gadget into the hole - the flange keeps it from
going all the way through. Insert an appropriately-sized bolt and tighten -
as the tube compresses, it gets wider and eventually makes a tight seal in
the hole and flares out behind it. Mind you, I haven't seen these things in
very large sizes and I'd say they aren't made for high weight or stress
applications, and you can't tighten them *too*  much - but if it's just a
piece of plastic trim you are fastening, it might do the trick.

I first encountered them on my motorcycle where they're used to attach the
windshield to the fairing (all plastic), and I'm currently planning to use
them in place of those nasty plastic trim clips that hold the interior
panels to the body of my van during it's upcoming renovations

Doug Fitz-Randolph
Yarmouth, ME
dfrandolph@talkam.net
'90 Syncro

[sorry about the HTML...]

[text/html]