[wrndln]

Farrell,
I had the same problem on the rear body crossmember on my phaeton. The 8 D nuts were missing, I have no idea why. First I fished the D nuts into the holes, like you are doing. I used some J-B Weld to "glue" them in place. If you can get the D nuts in place, the force of the screws will be plenty to hold the D nuts in place forever. However, the D nuts glued in the blind cossmember fell out as I tried to install the body back panel. I think the gluing problem was due to rust or dirt on the inside of the crossmember, causing the D nuts to not hold. Plan B. Since the D nuts can't be seen once the body part(s) are installed, I decided to use my Lincoln SP100 MIG welder (I love that little welder) to tack the D nuts in place. I remember grinding down the face of the D nuts that stick up and fishing each D nut in place using plenty of pressure to make sure the D nut is tight against the inside of the metal. It worked quite well.


Note: I didn't read your post correctly, in that you already repaired the pickup like I did a few years ago -sorry.

Rusty Nelson