Re: Randy Berger's 1956 Caribbean

Posted by BigKev On 2008/8/29 22:37:23

Not sure if I can agree with rivet being stronger that a good quality weld. A rivet is a mechanical connector that holds the two peices in place with a clamping force from the deformed rivet head/tail. Enough vibration can causes the defromed portion to loosed over the years. This is one of the reasons why they are going back and replacing all the rivets on the Golden Gate bridge with bolts. They can periodically recheck the bolts, and tighten as needed. Also the reason why alot of newern big-iron building I-beams are now bolted together rather then riveted like they used to be. Spot welds are done with an electical current through a clamping style welder. This fuses the two pieces together with both the electical current and the clamping force. The actual spot weld is stronger than the surrounding metal as it's now two (or more) layers fused into one. Hence why they are a pain in the butt to seperate.

But just my opinion, your results may vary.