Under car insulation rivets.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 961
Likes: 275
From: Frederick MD
Under car insulation rivets.
Working on the old C3 again. Finally got the engine and transmission out of the car to fix the hole in the floor (upcoming thread) and get the heat shielding back under the car. The previous owner just cut and thrashed the insulation out of the car. The original insulation clips are largely broken and need to be replaced. I was considering using pop rivets on these but I’m now reconsidering that. How do you guys peen over the OE rivets that are supposed to be used with these? I assume the flat head installs from the top and the par you peen you peen from the bottom. I still have part of the carpet in the car. I’m not too keen on pulling up the carpet, but I have a feeling I’m gonna have to pull the the seat and at least flip the carpet up.
Pro
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 696
Likes: 193
From: USA
i used an air chisel. cut the tip off of one of the chisels flat and drilled out the end with a smaller bit about 1/8" deep or so.
held the head of the rivet with a heavy metal chunk and peened the other side. Practice makes perfect. I pacticed until i found the right combo of air pressure, it aint much...
held the head of the rivet with a heavy metal chunk and peened the other side. Practice makes perfect. I pacticed until i found the right combo of air pressure, it aint much...
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 11,183
Likes: 3,334
From: North of Toronto - Ontario
you'll need a buck on the inside and someone to hold it, I've used the air-hammer (similar to a air-chisel) and it works (a little dramatic for my liking) by hand with a ground off chisel (slightly concave) and hammer but it's hard to swing in most places. What I did use (borrowed from a friend) is a palm nailer for some solid rivets on a piece of machinery I was making. couldn't get into the area any other way and it did work, I think with some modifications it would work as well as the air-hammer
M
M
1967 Pedal Car Champion
Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 8,988
Likes: 4,146
From: US-PNW
For my '72, I elected to use pop rivets installed from the interior. Even though I got the stock-style aluminum rivets with the insulation, working alone made pop rivets the way to go. I figured once the insulation was installed and carpet and padding back in place, no one would know a thing; the insulation would easily accommodate the pop rivet barrel bump. I inserted the rivet from the interior, placed a dab of jb weld on the clip and a small flat washer and carefully slid them over the rivet shaft on the tunnel side. The JB kept everything snug to the tunnel while I returned to the interior to set the rivet. Worked a charm.
