Received my silver Honda side steps from H&A today (perfect since I have the day off) so I promptly installed them. These steps truly are an outstanding compliment to the Ridge. I have attached pix below so you can have a look.
A few observations regarding the install:
I made my rivet nut tool as is documented in Mike Kennedy's post with the only exception that I used 3 small washers between the nut and rivet nut for rotation isolation. I figured that while I needed the compression of the two nuts being pulled together, while rotating the nut I needed the rivet nut to NOT rotate. This cheap simple tool worked very quickly and flawlessly (thanks Mike). Resting the ratchet handle against the under side of the truck (so the bolt won't rotate) while cranking the nut with a long handled wrench was the ticket!
Another thing that made this install quick and easy was a cheap socket attachment that fit in my cordless drill. There are LOTS of bolts and though they aren't TOO long, the drill threaded them in at a small fraction of the time it would have taken manually (not to mention carpel tunnel avoidance). I set the chuck a few clicks back so it would ratchet instead of over-tightening, right Da Ridge?
The pix show all my exterior self-installs; rear mud flaps, grill, fogs and now side steps.
A few observations regarding the install:
I made my rivet nut tool as is documented in Mike Kennedy's post with the only exception that I used 3 small washers between the nut and rivet nut for rotation isolation. I figured that while I needed the compression of the two nuts being pulled together, while rotating the nut I needed the rivet nut to NOT rotate. This cheap simple tool worked very quickly and flawlessly (thanks Mike). Resting the ratchet handle against the under side of the truck (so the bolt won't rotate) while cranking the nut with a long handled wrench was the ticket!
Another thing that made this install quick and easy was a cheap socket attachment that fit in my cordless drill. There are LOTS of bolts and though they aren't TOO long, the drill threaded them in at a small fraction of the time it would have taken manually (not to mention carpel tunnel avoidance). I set the chuck a few clicks back so it would ratchet instead of over-tightening, right Da Ridge?
The pix show all my exterior self-installs; rear mud flaps, grill, fogs and now side steps.