bazza77

Well in my case I have to replace nearly all the rivets and fasteners in my floor area, due to corrosion issue ( I just replaced bothsill panels as they were rusted away ) iintend to use new oem type rivets as this car wont be deliberately driven in the wet at all from now on. The force needed to pop those stainless rivets will be (IMO) way too much strain on that floor panel. And some of the ones at the back are almost impossible to get at the outside of due to the frame being in the way, so getting a small stainless washer on the end (to spread the load) well was impossible for me anyway. Thats with the body on as yours is .

The factory put the big head of those rivets on the outside ( against the fibreglass ) for that reason

I

Kevin68

Good point. I though about using a short screw and bolt but was worried that the threads would chew into the glass. Maybe I can get a small die and make a short partial thread screw. I'll have to look at how much room I have there.

bazza77

if you can get your car on a hoist so access is better underneath and you have a helper ,it might be doable . I was doing it by myself on jack stands.

Kevin68

I've got a quick jack so I've got decent room when lifted. I'll get the wife to help. I'll give the ss rivets a try on some scrap to see how tough it'll be. I could glue a washer in place too.

Just noticed you're in Western Australia. My sister-in-law and nieces are Australian. She and my wife's brother/nieces live in Port Stephens, which is a small town east of Newcastle on the coast.

pechetr

I have about 3/16 of a gap left to close between the top of the tunnel and the clip to be riveted. I was thinking of a little adhesive between the rear seat plate and the rear glass cargo area before reinstalling the rivets.

bazza77

Yeah give it a go, sounds like a good plan , I wish you success .

Port Stephens is a very nice part of our East Coast. I did some work in Newcastle years ago and really enjoyed the town.

bazza77

I cant see that it would hurt anything , but none was put there at the factory . I just put a bit of silicone on the rivet and tried to get a washer on the back(under the car ).

pechetr

So an update....I was able to remove all the rivets from the panel and jack the floor. I installed new rivets with a washer on the back of them as well as ne rivets in the tunnel. I added one additional rivet on each side at the bottom as well. It is pretty secure now.


Able to get the panel tight to the tunnel again



Additional rivet near floor



Washer on the back side



2x4 straddled the tunnel between the floor and the exhaust

bazza77

​​​​​​​well done , thats as good as new now. You have encouraged me to try and lift my centre section and rivet it properly now . Cheers.

Kevin68

pecheter,
That looks great. I chickened out and set mine about 3/16" short. With a 2 x 4 across the whole floor I easily lifted the rear of the car off my jack. A shorter 2 x 4 spanning just across the tunnel concentrated the lifting force in the center of the body. I went as far as I felt comfortable with. I feel like another pull on the jack handle would have lifted the car off my jack or cracked the glass. I was probably lifting with close to 1,000 pounds of force, which just seemed like too much.

I ended up shimming the gap, and using two 1/4" bolts in the tunnel. Because I wasn't all the way up with the body, the inside holes where the rear bulkhead meets the body didn't quite line up. I drilled three new holes, and put in 3/4" x 1/4" round head screws. Not as flush or clean as yours, but i'm pretty sure they'll be there a lot longer than the original rivets ever were...and I'm going for function over originality on this repair. I filled the first 3/8" of the screw threads with an epoxy filler to hopefully prevent the thread from cutting into the glass too badly. On the underside, I used adhesive to attach a flat washer to the nut. Then I could cradle the nut/washer in a long open end wrench while the wife turned the screw until we got few threads. Then she went underneath and held the wrench while I tightened. Took us about 20 minutes for all 6. The roundhead screw will be an unnoticeable flaw in the black carpet on the bulkhead.

Not a perfect solution but I'm satisfied it should work.

bazza77

its kind of like they have settled lower over time (mine included) with the weight of people in there bouncing around as its being driven ,the floors (I'm guessing) have settled after the rivets have rotted/pulled? away and here we are trying to fix it in one session , Time is against us , if we could leave it jacked up for a long while maybe it would settle all the way back eventually .

If the seats look horizontal and not leaning in toward the centre then that's probably as good as it needs to be. With what you have done it certainly wont get any worse now

mine is still in a million pieces so I will try jacking it for as long as possible and see what happens .

Kevin68

Exactly! My car is 49 year old (early 68). I have no idea when these rivets let go. The PO is (was) at least 6' 5" (170 cm) and 250 (103 kg).

Maybe, though I doubt it without developing small cracks. I've already laid a bunch of glass fixing cracks in the floor/foot well. I think that the jiggling I have had a lot to do with the body falling apart.

I never noticed a problem there and I have Corbeau A4 seats which are a good bit taller than stock. I guess I'll find out in a few months when I put seats back in. I'll shim the seats if they lean in rather than risk making a bigger problem.

I may be tearing this apart in the future, but I'm certain it is better than it was. Time to move on.

I appreciate your input Bazza...

Sorry for threadjack pechetr. It looks great and timely topic. I'm glad you got it back correctly.