Riveting and rivet gun

[alga]

No, just ordinary pop rivets.

I did my rivnuts with a longish (40-50 mm) M6 bolt and a nut. I would drill a hole, countersink it, then insert a sandwich: rivnut, washer, a piece of perforated steel band, washer, washer, nut, all threaded on the bolt. I would clamp the steel plate to the chassis and tighten the nut while holding the bolt steady. 8.8 grade nuts and bolts would hold for 2-4 rivnuts, then the thread would strip. Oiling everything did help a bit.

It wasn't as easy as popping ordinary rivets, but wasn't very bad either. Rivnut tools are more expensive than plain riveters, and I've heard that the hardened mandels in them are really easy to snap.