How do you remove rivets

[julians]

Does anyone know the correct way to remove the rivets that hold the cockpit trim panels in place, it would seem obvious to drill them out, but won't that leave bits of rivet ratting around inside the chassis.

 

Also, whilst we're on the subject, is there a special type of rivet gun/rivets that I need to buy to re-rivet it back into place.

 

Thnaks

 

Julian

[KayTee]

Hi !

 

Well, when I picked-up my chassis from Arch, Bruce removed part of that panel to locate the bushing for the FIA diagonal.

He just drilled the outer head off, pushed the remains into the tube, and re-rivetted.

 

There's no way you can get the rivet-heads out of the chassis tubes, other than drilling a large hole into each tube, that is.

 

You will just need a bog-standard hand-rivet tool for those flimsy rivets holding the panel. Make sure to get black rivets to match the present ones.

(I could of course offer industrial quality pneumatic-hydraulic rivet tool shere, but that might *just* be a *tiny bit* of an overkill ...)

 

Best - Karsten

[julians]

Thanks, but dont they rattle around in there?

[R2D2]

I drilled out all of the rivets in my car's cockpit area.

 

I drilled the heads off first with a drill that is slightly larger than the shank of the rivet. The heads do spin so you need to be quite careful. This leaves the full rivet shank in the spaceframe tube.

 

Change the drill for one which is slightly undersize to the size of the rivet shank and as you drill into the rivet the majority of the remaining section will be expelled as swarf into the cockpit area. (I would remove the carpet before you start).

 

Sometimes a small section of the rivet is left inside the hole but you can pull this out with some needle nosed pliers.

 

It is a bit fiddly but it seemed better than punching rivets into the tubes and I have never heard any of the remnants rattle on my car.

 

[Dave H]

I drilled the heads off my rivets and punched them into the chassis. Before I put any new rivets in I sprayed a large quantity of Waxoil in each hole. The inside of the chassis has been rust proofed, and any loose bits of rivets will be stuck - so no rattles.

 

Dave H

[CHRIS CLARK]

Ditto Dave H's method. Never had a rattle from the loose, lightweight ali rivet remains.thumbsup.gif Plenty of others though!!!thumbsdown.gif

[EFA]

Chris,

 

Could you hear a rivet rattle above your engine???

 

Fat Arn

Commagirl doesn't get her leg over any old Rover.....id=red>

See the Lotus Seven Club 4 Counties Area Website hereid=green>

 

[I.Mupferit]

For black rivets simply use a black indelible marker on the rivet heads.

A good point Arnie, I would defy anyone to hear a few aluminium rivet heads rattling around inside a chassis rail above all the other noises a 7 makes!

 

Brent

[R2D2]

Arnie, as you say I doubt I could ever hear the rattles, I just prefferd drilling as much of the rivet out as possible rather than knocking them into the tubes.

[Nigel Riches]

Reference to Tony Weales book, on p79, indicates that the correct material for the rivets is MONEL, not common or garden aluminium, and that a higher spec rivet is used for the inner side panels of cars with honeycomb ali between the skins, approach Arch Motors for the rivets, or a specialist engineering fastening supply, some years ago I had cause to re-rivet my car and it made it a lot stiffer, and less rattley and creaky, hope this hasn't caused further problems.

Regards Nigel.

[KayTee]

For specialist rivets call 0121-557-9777, speak to Mr. David Harrison, tell him that Karsten Titgemeyer gave you this number, and describe the problem you have.

He'll be able to get you sorted.

(Dunno about black rivets, though. never checked our inventory for those. same number for industrial quality rivet and rivnut tools and rivnuts themself)

 

Bye - Karsten

[R2D2]

I think that Arch have been using Aluminium Rivets for quite some time. The ones I removed from my car were certainly Aluminium.

Monel rivets were used on Series 1 and I think early Series 2 cars. Monel is a nickel based alloy and quite difficult to drill out and virtually impossible to pull by hand.

 

Over the last few years Tucker and POP fastners have developed a much wider range of Aluminium Rivets and they have a downloadable PDF catalogue on the web, which gives size, material type, strength etc on all of the rivest available.

 

Current specification aluminium rivets have a shear strenght which is better than Monel and a tensile strength which is very similar. They can also be pulled in hand tools.

 

A couple of suitable aluminium rivets are POP catalogue number AD53HS and AD55HS, they are the correct diameter but are different length.