Jim Royston at dieselgeek gave me some help on removing the bolt from the rivnut that was spinning so I could get the front post off. But now I'm out of time and have to just put the Panzer plate on the shelf again.
Life sucks and then you die.
ps Also, when I tried to do a redo on the insertion of the rivnut with the rivnut tool that they provided both the rivnut and the tool are now stuck under the car.