Factory style holes for screws?

[4EyedTurd]

I might be overthinking this…but if you were shooting for a factory look when putting holes in for say a shifter bezel that’s held in with screws what’s the method? I think most of the time the metal looks like it’s been punched in which gives the screws more meat to grab on to which seems better than a slightly undersized drilled hole.

 

[American Locomotive]

I assume you're talking about threaded holes into thin sheet metal or plates.

From the factory they'll use one (or more) of a number of methods.

- Plastic threaded inserts that snap into punched square holes
- Drilled/punched hole with a clip nut (a little metal spring clip with a nut on one side)
- Weld nuts on the back side (special nut literally welded to the sheet metal)
- Rivnut/Rivet nut (A hollow rivet that's threaded on the inside, inserted into a pre-drilled/punched hole)
- Punched, then formed/threaded holes (Hole is punched through, and then a die and mandrel further shape the hole for threading)
- Thermal/flow drilling (A special die or screw is spun at high speed/pressure, melting the metal and forming a deep hole that can be threaded)

I'd say in my experience most interior components are fastened using the first method (plastic threaded inserts), while things under hood tend to use a mixture of clip-nuts and weld-nuts. The American stuff I've worked on seem to really like clip-nuts, while the Japanese cars I've worked on seem to prefer weld-nuts.

 

[Kenstone1]

I'd try using an AWL to punch the hole type as you have described.
Sort of like a mini dimple die.

If it's too thick to pierce with the awl, drill a small starter hole, then the awl.

If you are trying to create a formed countersunk hole, I would drill a pilot hole and then use a center punch ground to the countersink angle needed.
You may need some kind of back-up die underneath, to get crisp corners on the countersink though.
jmo,
.