Norm07

I have come across this issue on my 71 convertible. I know something isn't right and looking to those in the know that could chime in with some advice. The location is at the point where the trans tunnel meets the rear luggage panel(or whatever it's called, its steel). There is a 1/2 inch gap between the bracket and the fibreglass tunnel. There are two failed rivets.



Along with this the rivets are missing alon the bottom of this panel



Anyone seen this before?

Could this be caused by a driver of "above average weight" possibly putting more stress on this area, ? ...as the seat frame on the drivers side is bent all to h**l .

And... do you think it's ok to push it back in to place and instead of rivets replace the rivets with nuts and bolts or have I got another issue causing the stress to break the rivets?????

Alan 71

Hi Norm,
Happy New Year!

It looks as though the underbody has pulled loose/dropped a bit.
There's a small rectangular plate in the transmission tunnel that those rivets should seat in.
There are often empty rivet holes in the bulkhead....especially on the passenger's side. I believe it depends what options the car has as to whether more clips are used... I'm thinking the alarm system?

Regards,
Alan



Here you see the plate, the 3 rivets that secure it in place, and the 'pulled' end of the 2 pop-rivets.



Here's a photo of another car in which the underbody has dropped some.

Norm07

Alan....happy New year back at you and yours as well as everyone else here....

I had a better look at the underside and found one of the broken/pulled out aluminum rivets stuck between the frame and the fibreglass, where the hole in to the bulk head is.

So I will just ease everything back in place and use a couple 1/4 inch bolts to fasten the centre bracket. This seems to be a bit of a weak spot.

Thanks Alan for the pics....