Anybody put those fancy rivets in the tunnel before?-any tricks?

[indy_500]

i'm going to be replacing the front mounting plates in the front part of the rear suspension since the holes got bigger when the bolt sheared. so i got a air hammer with the punch style chisel and hoping it will work...any tricks for holding those fancy rivets in on the other side?

 

[polarisrider1]

post pics of what you got going on.

 

[indy_500]

i took the suspension out, i got the old plate out and i got the new plate ready to put on and i need a different chisel for it so i can mushroom the rivet, i have to go now to go to my dads budddy's house to see if he has a chisel so i don't have time for pics. i also got 3 track clips missing. is that going to hurt anything in the next 2000 miles? there's 8 on it so i don't feel like puttin a new track on it and 1 clip is on one side and the other 2 r on the other side

 

[xcr440]

You'll be fine missing a couple clips, unless they are all right next to each other. Just keep an eye on them, in case more start to dissapear in the same areas.

 

[dab102999]

If I get ya you are talking about using the hammer to set the rivets. You can do this but be very careful. One slip and you mess that tunnel up. As far as holding those from the inside I would cut a piece of 2x4 and put a piece of steel on the end of it. Brace it from one side of the tunnel to the other and have someone keep an eye on that side to make sure it takes a good set. I think you are going thru a lot here to give it a factory look. I myself would use some grade 8 bolts and self locking nuts myself if there is enough room to clear the track and suspension. A couple pics would be nice to make sure we all understand what you got going on though....

 

[indy_500]

i went to my dad's buddies house and got a certain mushrooming chisel and he gave us his hammer air gun so we r taking the one we got back. and it worked with the rivets. but my dad's buddy said to just use bolts if we ran into problems.

xcr440, the clips r very spread apart from each other

 

[indy_500]

o yeah the most important part, I'M FINISHED!

 

[jimfsr]

I hope you did it right. The mushrooming head (rivet setter) goes on the round headed side of the rivet. You place a heavy flat piece of steel on the inside (shank) of the rivet end. I have bucking bars made special for this, but a flat hammer head from a 2 lb maul will work. The heavier the better. You put the rivet setter on the outside nice and tight to the tunnel, pull the trigger gently, and press the block of steel against the back. The rivet should flatten out to about 1-1/2 times its original diam. It should NOT be squished flush with the inside, or it will have no strength at all. It would be best to practice on a scrap piece, otherwise you will probably smile a few rivets (setter jumps and makes a smile shape on the rivet head) It should have a thickness on the inside of anout 1/2 the diam. of the rivet (3/16 diam rivet, 3/32 thickness squish) The outside should be tight to the tunnel. I have done thousands of rivets over the last 20 years, and if done right are very strong.
(6 years as an airplane mechanic and 14 as a heavy truck/ trailer mechanic)

 

[indy_500]

we did it the opposite way ruh ro! we put the mushrooming head of the hammer on the inside of the tunnel and held a maul on the outside of the tunnel to hold the rivet in

at least that's what i think after reading what you just said

 

[indy_500]

i know the first one we did, we did reallly bad because it split everywhere and it flattened like a pancake. we got some different tools and it seemed to work and it looked somewhat like what the factory ones did on the inside.

 

[jimfsr]

It might hold up, but yea you did it backwards. By doing it the way I described, the rivet will fill in any gaps or irregulatities in the hole, and the rivet will harden itself (work harden), by just mushing one side with the setter, it just kind of caps the hole. Most guys at work tried to do it backwards the first time too, then we had to show them how. Hope it holds together. if you see them start to "smoke" (black sooty marks around the rivet) or they come loose, you might have to do it the right way. But hey, you learned something right!