Car trunk mounting nuts built into rear deck???

[Jonathan KC8RYW]

Back when I had a '91 Toyota Tercel, I noticed there were three or four nuts that were welded into the rear deck. I considered using those nuts, along with some bolts, for mounting a piece of plywood with a electrical gear on it in the trunk. Well, the Tercel got hit by someone who made a left turn in front of me, and the car was totalled, before I could Implement this mount.

So, I was poking around the '93 Saturn SL2 (the replacement) looking for places to mount a piece of plywood in the trunk. And I noticed those very same nuts there, too.



My questions:

1. What size/thread are these nuts? (I could figure this out on my own if worst comes to worse)

2. Why are they there?

3. Has anyone done this before?

Thanks!

[Dale Earnhardt]

That is a goood point, why is that nut right there anyways?? I wanna know that too, cause I miss with our honda accord at home, and they got the same exact thing, dont know what the heck it is for.

[Flametamer]

The nuts are there for an additional tie-down strap for child seats.
I'm not sure but it is probably a new federal regulation requiring it. There are clips that fasten through the rear deck and into these nuts, giving an additional mount directly over the childs head. Look at the rear deck of other cars and you will see what I am talking about. Some are permanatley mounted and often have plastic covers to hide them when they are not being used. Others, such as your Saturn, hide the holes and mounting nuts unless they are needed.

Even my 2000 Chevy Truck has mounting studs in the floor behind/under the rear extra-cab seat for this reason.

I hope that helps
Darrin

[Jonathan KC8RYW]

I made an intresting discovery today.

On my lunch break at work, I tried figuring out what size bolt these nuts are for. I tried all of the "standard" bolts.

It turns out that these are METRIC! Yes, METRIC! An American car with METRIC nuts. And I thought I would be done with that, after I was rid of my Japanise Toyota. They use the M8 thread.

Is this some sort of standard? Is mine the only using M8?

[Flametamer]

My old truck (90 model Chevy) was held to gether with a lot of 10 mm. bolts. My new one (2000 model Chevy) is 10 times worse. I had to crawl in and out from under my truck several times while trying to find the right side wrench when I changed the oil the first time. WHAT A PAIN!!!

[Tom in D.C.]

Four cars back I had an '88 Honda coupe which had these holes in the rear package shelf. I used the center one to hold down a thick aluminum plate which was about 6 by 12 inches, and on the plate I mounted two fat GE mobile speakers for the two comm radios in the car. Perfect location,perfect acoustics, and it didn't take away from other usable space in the car. Also did little to restrict the rear vision, fortunately.

Tom, W2NJS
...in D.C.

[Bugs Bunny]

Remember the space probe a few years back which crashed into one of the planets. The cause of it was due to a screw up between the Metric and Imperial measurements. One engineer submitted his calculations in Imperial and the receiptent assumed it was in Metric.

Bugs

[FireCpt809]

Now days most American cars have some metric nuts, bolts, fittings and do-hickeys. I know the Ford police interceptor is mostly 7mm 8mm 10mm 11mm and 18mm aka 19/32, 5/16th 3/8th, 7/16th and 3/4 for us english system users..