Seems people would still rather epoxy in some all-thread than spend even $20 on the right bolts. To me if you epoxy something in, you shoot yourself in the foot on a future issue. I guess not everyone cares about that though. I tend to put more emphasis on something being serviceable than just getting it fixed ASAP.
If I could have just clicked "buy" on some $20 bolts that match, I probably would have, so you would have got a sale from me at the time. But I'm not even sure there are that many duallys left to sell five figures worth of $20 bolts....there probably are, but just kind of a wild example.
I'm sure there are better fenders than what I got, mine were just the cheapest beat up crap I could find on marketplace, but the reason the studs were missing in the first place, was due to the threads getting rusty, and then they spun in the fenders. So if a person trys to take one out, and its not the last bolt, the really grippy fender side of the bolt grinds into the SMC, because the other bolts left are still applying pressure, pulling the fender in.
You're then left with a situation of a half ground out hole, which will never really hold a stud worth a damn. To me the only choices left would be to pour some resin in there....or well epoxy...same difference, to then hold the stud in.
So then I had to ask myself..."Do I really want to get bent out of shape over some factory bolts, or just grab some crap from the hardware store, and move on with life" I aint that young, and either way its going to outlive me. Same could probably be said if the bolts/studs were available, and a person is debating a couple dollars, vs twenty dollars. Money is definitely tight nowadays.
Kinda nullifies the servicable aspect, because the SMC hole isnt something that is going to last forever, without something being applied. Or a stainless kit that would prevent any rust on the machine thread side. I slathered mine with anti-sieze, but it doesnt last forever.
For what its worth, I'm fully for doing things right in the first place, but to me this is a bit of a grey area. My foot is definitely not shot. They will either come out on their own, and thats when they would need serviced, or I could just break one out with a double nut. Either way the base will eventually become damaged.
Its definitely not that I didn't care, it just is what it is. Just giving you my whole thought process on it all, from a different point of view.