Re: Loose rivets

Posted by John Wogec On 2015/1/6 13:09:51

Sounds like we have both been battling some of the same demons. I responded to your post about spring shackle bushings last week. I recently removed a rear engine mount from my 1929 Seven Passenger Sedan...double rounded head rivets and I think it is a 3/16 inch rivet. Grainger has them cheap. I made a bucking bar with a dimpled end out of a piece of 4140 steel...Just like everybody says...get the correct size rivet so it fits the hole very close, get it cherry red (I used oxy-acetylene which worked great) and smack it real good once to expand it snug in the hole, then fight with it the rest of the afternoon to get it to look right. If you hit it too many times you will actually dimple the steel around the rivet, so definitely practice on some blanks first. If you do dimple the steel you can go back afterwards and fill the depression with weld. I'm not saying I had to do that though...bottom line is it looks like the original after I spent a day of making up new cuss words.