Experience with rivet nuts?

[Andy]

Here's the situation. I snapped the head off of a bolt that holds the front fender to the body. I left hand drilled the shank out which promptly took the rest of the rusty female threads with it. I've been used racer's tape to hold the fender to the frame while I figure out a solution.

I can take it to a shop and have them spot weld a nut on it and get all the functionality back or used a rivet nut to create threads that are flush with the body. It would be cheaper, I assume, to use a rivet nut so long as I can use a regular rivet gun. Anyone have any experience with these things or know of a better solution?

[JustinG]

or don't you have some of this left over???

[Andy]

Racer's tape is an inelegant solution that I've been forced to use and zip ties won't work because there isn't a "out" hole for it to loop through.

[Dave]

it might help us come up with solutions if you can snap a picture of the dilemma. I'm having a little difficulty picturing it right now...

[PGK]

Rivet nuts work fine. Most of the bikes I work on at work use them to attach things to the frame. You need a tool to install them though, but I imagine a proper sized bolt and a few nuts would work too.