Nut plates center avionics access.

[Nukemzzz]

Putting the cowl back together after installing the EI R1 tach I discovered that the center bar of the avionics stack wouldn’t take a screw. 5 of the 6 nut plates here are broken. 

Anyone have any tricks or advice for addressing this?  I assume we need to call Lasar and get exact replacements, drill and rivet in new ones. But maybe someone has a better idea that gets me back up faster. 
 

[chriscalandro]

Spruce has them. Temporarily you could stick a piece of zip tie in stripped ones and see if they thread. 

[47U]

Rivnuts.  I have a mix - four positions are sheet metal nut plates, but the forward two positions are 10/32 rivnuts.  Don’t mix them up when putting the fasteners back in.    

[M20F-1968]

Obtain thread sizes and distance and size of the mounting holes from Spruce or other.  Drill out and replace.  A pneumatic rivet squeezer will likely be helpful if it fits, or a hand squeezer.

John Breda

[Aerodon]

I know these are quite pricey, but if you are replacing several 1/4 turn fasteners, might be time to upgrade:

https://store.skybolt.com/mooney-c724.aspx

I also like the 'epoxy in place' nut plates from click bond - especially useful for hard to access places or if you don't have all the tools for nut plates.

 

Aerodon