LemansBlue68

I am about to reinstall the seat and seat belt reinforcements that attach with the aluminum rivets under the floor boards of my car. I bought a rivet setting tool from Caledonia Corvettes a few months ago in anticipation of this job. The tool looks like a big punch with a concave face that deforms the rivet. As best as I can figure, I'll have someone hold the head of a 5 or 10 lb sledge hammer on one side and I'll strike the tool to deform the rivet on the other side.

All I can think, though, is that there's got to be a better way. Does anyone know how the factory did it? Is there any tricks to this to make the job easier or less prone to damaging something?

JmpnJckFlsh

LMB, that is exactly how I have successfully set the aluminum rivets except that I had an assistant hold a 3 pound "engineers hammer" as a back-up, and it was completely adequate. By the time the heavy hammer rebounds, and it will with each blow, the aluminum is already deformed.

The only suggestion I would offer is to use the AIM to identify the part number of each rivet location, and use Dr. Rebuild's catalog table to determine the proper length for the rivets. Cut them to length before you attempt to set them. The bulk rivets that vendors sell are all the maximum length of about 1/2 inch. If you attempt to set them as supplied, you will have a lot more hammering, and big "unoriginal" looking blob of aluminum on the set end.

Caledonia Corvette's tool also leaves an unoriginal looking hemisphere on the set end; if these are rivets in a visible location, you may want to use an ordinary piece of bar stock with a square, smooth cut end to finish off the setting process after you have a mushroom well started.

I don't know how the factory did it, but if they had a special tool, you can bet that you aren't going to find one these days. I doubt that a special tool was used because most of the locations would make a special tool impossible; the process was probably exactly as we have discussed. This technique is not too far fetched if you consider that the bodies were built by hand, and metal parts were painted by dipping them in barrels. :D :D

John McGraw

Eric, the way the rivets were originally formed is the way that aircraft are still assembled today, and it is a very easy process with little posssibility of damage done properly. The head of the rivet is driven with a air powered rivet gun and a solid metal bar called a bucking bar is helt hard against the shank of the rivet. as the gun bangs on the rivet, the shank is expanded against the bucking bar. You say you have a concave tool that fits the head of the rivet, does it have a shoulder on it and neck down to .401" on the opposite end?
If so you are halfway there. While a rivet gun is the preferred tool you can make do with a standard air chisel from Home Depot at a much lower price. The only difference is that a rivet gun strikes more rapidly with less stroke, but you can throttle an air chisel to strike with less force. Start with a very light strike until you get a feel for the gun and then increase air pressure if necessary. Press firmly down on the rivet head with the gun and have a helper on the back side with a bucking bar. The bucking bar needs to be held tightly against the rivet, but not so hard that it raises the rivet up out of it's hole or the rivet will not clinch the 2 parts together. As you strike the rivet head the shank will expand and shorten, when the dia.of the shank is approx. 2x original dia. then you are about right. If you look at some of the aircraft surplus sites on the web, you will find a staggering array of rivet sets and bucking bars at bargin prices. One place that I have done business with for years is called the "YARD" and I belive you will find anything you need there. If you need a rivet set, Keep in mind that each different rivet dia. uses a different set so you will need to nkow what rivet you are driving. There is also a flush set for driving countersunk rivets and it just has a large flat face, you will find many of this type of rivet on corvettes. The wide range of bucking bars is simply meant to accomodate all the little nooks and crannies on aircraft wher rivet must be bucked. If the rivet is in the open then any large chunk of smooth metal can be used to buck, ie: a body dolly. Drop me an E-mail if I can be of any more help. :seeya

LemansBlue68

Chuck and John,
Thank you both for the excellent suggestions! I never thought of an aircraft supply as a source for the riveting tools that I needed. I checked out The Yard and sure enough, more bucking bars and 0.401 shanked rivet sets than I could shake a stick at. Good prices too. The rivet tool from Caledonia Corvettes didn't have a 0.401 shank. It was basically a hand held manual job, and I was afraid that an errent swing with the hammer might put a larger hole in my panel than I wanted to deal with (or could bear). I feel much more confident with my handy air chisel as far as control.

I also was under the impression that the 1/2 inch rivets that I had were one size fits all applications (rivets is rivets?). You raise a good point, Chuck, I should trim each according to the thickness of the panels that I'm riveting.

Thanks again. I'll give a progress report when I get my new tools from The Yard and start riveting these reinforcements back on, which should be in a couple of weeks.