Riveting stuff..
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,919
Likes: 4
From: Clovis NM
Riveting stuff..
I used to have a little hand held riveter I used in college years ago, and have not done anything since.. I just received the rivets from LIC for the dash, as well as the rivets that hold the heater box together.. exactly WHAT tool(s) do I need to do this right? And I assume the rivets on the heater box are just drilled out? I was going to half *** replace the foam gaskets on the inside but decided to do it right.. and once.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 6,350
Likes: 423
From: Seattle Area WA
Are some of these rivets semi hollow (they will look drilled out)? If so you need to use a semi hollow rivet set. Do a search function, there is lots of info on rivet tool suppliers. If any of these are the 1/2" flat head rivets, the ones I have received from LICS previoulsy have the incorrect temper and will not set correctly. Paragon and Dr Rebuild have the best rivets.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,345
Likes: 87
From: Northern MN
St. Jude Donor '13-'14-'15-'16-'17
I used to have a little hand held riveter I used in college years ago, and have not done anything since.. I just received the rivets from LIC for the dash, as well as the rivets that hold the heater box together.. exactly WHAT tool(s) do I need to do this right? And I assume the rivets on the heater box are just drilled out? I was going to half *** replace the foam gaskets on the inside but decided to do it right.. and once.
Good Luck. I bought one of those tools along with the rivets and could not get it to function correctly. On top of that, all the holes in the heater box were cracked from trying to get the other rivets out. Half of the holes were to large for the rivets. Not sure how that happened but it did. I gave up and simply put screws in. I'll let the next worry about it be correct.
Steve
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,142
Likes: 704
For the dash rivets you just need a standard pop rivet tool. For the heater box rivets you can use one of these, available from LICS. That is what I used on mine and it worked fine. You will need a second set of hands to support the heater box. Put a block of steel or aluminum under the head of the rivet while you gently hammer on the tool which is indexed in the rivet tail.
And yes, you drill out the old rivets. If it starts to spin you can use a set of side cutters to hold it.
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,919
Likes: 4
From: Clovis NM
You have the one for the heater box rivets? Or one that will work for the heater box rivets? And should the rivets be natural color or painted?
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,458
Likes: 27
For the dash rivets you just need a standard pop rivet tool. For the heater box rivets you can use one of these, available from LICS. That is what I used on mine and it worked fine. You will need a second set of hands to support the heater box. Put a block of steel or aluminum under the head of the rivet while you gently hammer on the tool which is indexed in the rivet tail.
And yes, you drill out the old rivets. If it starts to spin you can use a set of side cutters to hold it.
And yes, you drill out the old rivets. If it starts to spin you can use a set of side cutters to hold it.
I put my heater box together with pop rivets. Isn't that much less time consuming and costly for a manufacturer? Why did they dink around with those hammer rivets for a heater box?
I've thought about that for YEARS and all I got was a headache.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Washington Michigan
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