Is there a secret to removing these rivets I am building a new ch***is for my 46 business coupe I have to widen the X member as I am using a 55 olds motor backed by a turbo 350. I don't want to smoke wrench it apart, am hoping to reuse the X member plates both top and bottom maybe widened a little so the mods aren't too apparent to the untrained eye. Yes I do have an air chisel, but after chiseling the rivet heads off They wont drive out, I end up drilling the out. This will be a challenge on my X member because of where the rivets are. Any help will be greatly appreciated Rich
Use a grimder wheel on the top of the rivet. Then drill the center about half way. Put a punch in the drilled hole and knock the snot out of it.
I center punch the rivet head, and drill a 3/16 hole nearly all the way through the rivet. Depending on the size of the rivet, I enlarge the hole a couple drill sizes under the body of the rivet, leaving some backing. Using a drift punch, held by vice grips, and a 3 lb hammer, knock them out. The key is to leave backing in the rivet to hammer on. That way, you don't get crawl, and the holes are as punched, from the factory.
Just did some on my 46, grind the head off, heat the shank of the rivit with a torch, the use the air chisel on the shank they come right out.
I Can't say it any better than Marty did in post 3. That is exactly how I did the ones on my frame for my 48. It does take a good quality drill bit and you will either be sharpening the bit or using a new one if you have a lot of rivets. I have ground them flush and still had to center punch and drill because they tend to swedge out in the metal a bit when they are installed. I've also used my air chisel and knocked the heads off but that doesn't work any better than grinding the heads off. Sure makes a lot of noise though.
get the headless rivet shaft "red" hot, let cool, get red, let cool, repeat till they tap out... getting them red hot expands them but when they cool the carbon you baked out of them makes them slightly smaller... lots of work... i'ld drill the ones i could get at... i was told that henry froze some of the rivets when installed, they tightened when they warmed up ?
A lot of those ch***is rivets were installed red hot. When peened the shank swells tight in the hole and the heads draw down tight when cooling. I've never had a real hard time driving them out but grinding off the head and drilling a hole in them relieves some of the shank tightness. They should drive right out. Use a heavy hammer and some backup so they don't just bounce when struck. The mistake lots of folks make is using a light weight hammer.
What he said. the strength of a rivetted joint is not (in most cases) related to the head. Rivets are best used in shear, not tension. The strength (in shear) comes from expanding the body to conform to the hole, making a tight, metal-to-metal connection, achieved by beating the **** out of the end of the rivet to form a head. Usually done with red-hot rivets, or equipment that provides extreme force (squeeze or multiple mini hammer blows...think Rosy the riveter). Properly deformed in the hole, they don't just pop out when you remove the head. Drill the body as large as possible like Marty says, then get after them with a BFH. Don't use heat on a frame member, you'll be changing the properties of the steel. When it comes time to re***emble, give careful thought to your attachment method: sometimes it's better to use appropriately sized and torqued threaded fasteners. Most home shops and home mechanics aren't properly equipped or experienced to tackle home-brew riveting. Also note that many riveted joints are odd sized holes, so some holes may need to be opened up for the next size bolt.
I just did some on a Model T frame. I sort of used both methods, ground some and drilled some. Used a drill bit just smaller than what I thought the rivet shank was (turns out I guessed right), center punched, drilled deeper than the level of the frame, then used a good, sharp cold chisel and a hammer to remove the little left-over ring of material. Maybe that operation loosened them a bit, but the drilled/chiseled ones drove out with a punch easier than the ground flush ones did. It was kind of time consuming, though.
Thanks guys all good advice I have come close to most of the above ideas in my efforts, just a lot of work!!!!!!
We removed about 70 of those on a build. The drill the head then hit with and air hammer worked well. I have used a cut off wheel the do an “X” through the rivet head then chisel. Torch Plasma cutter Air hammer only. Works great if ya got the large air hammer. Cold chisel Grinder Basically any tool in the shop that has spark making capabilities
Grind the head off , blue wrench heat and , air chisel while red hot . Wear your PPE and this is not a job for sandals
I’m surprised your air hammer would not knock them out as that was how I removed rivets on my truck,,,many rivets.
this is what I used this weekend on my 46. Made very short work of the rivets. And very easy to control. Then a few whacks with a hammer and punch and was home free.
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