Riviting Subject

[MistWolf]

In a previous post, I suggested riviting some parts together as prefferable to nuts & bolts. Why?

1) Weight savings. Nuts & bolts can add a ton of weight quickly
2) Rivits swell to fill the holes when shot. This will keep the parts from shifting around and eventually enlarging the holes in the sheetmetal
3) Ease of installation. Rivits are easier and faster to install especially when one is experienced

It's important to use good quality rivits. The soft pop rivits won't hold up well and will shear easily. Being an aircraft mechanic dealing with rivits everday it's easy for me to take for granted that a proper rivit gun, set and selection of solid rivits is handy. In aviation we shoot solid rivits with a rivit gun that is similar but definitely different than an air hammer using the proper rivit set and bucking bar. If you can find somebody with that kind of experience and tooling that's what you should use. Your best solution is to use a spot welder or better yet a MIG welder

[Scott Mac.]

Thats all and good, but what if some of us don't have access to quallity pricey aircraft fastners. Also its a pain to have to drill out rivits.

The pros of rivets don't outweigh the cons of nuts & bolts, pun intended.

[Beezil]

whoever said rivets were exotic?

we use rivets all the time in our manufactured goods, and we're competeing with the chinese....

[FatXJ]

Like he said they also aren't easily removable and if they break off inside of something they rattle around, where a selftapper wouldn't.

I do use rivets, but I prefer to use an air powered rivet gun $$$.

[Beezil]

if we are talking blind rivets, they drill out very easily.

scott mac is just the lazy-whiney type.

[Gary E]

I think rivets have their place, and are great fasteners for certain things, I think you can drill them out as fast as you can unscrew any bolt. Also the HF air riveter is only $25 or so, its a great tool I used it lots, this picture is just a portion of the riveting needed there was still all the trunk panels and engine compartment panels;)
http://home.attbi.com/~6mach9/cobrapage/0e758c20.jpg

[Beezil]

MGB?

nice!

[Safari Ary]

Looks more lika Cobra to me...

[Gary E]

Its an Factory Five Cobra replica, its my wifes car really :D She has driven it at least :D
another unfinished website.
http://home.attbi.com/~6mach9/cobrapage/index.htm Its done and driving and is a blast!

[Safari Ary]

Wow, Gary, that's BEAUTIFUL. How long did it take, start to finish??

Ary

[Gary E]

about 7 months once the kit showed up, from unpacking boxes to street legal and insured. I did everything but the paint. Of course they are never really finished right :)

[XJguy]

I dont know if you guys have read, the new Jaguar XJ (coincidence?) is all made of aluminum and is rivited and glued together! All in the name of weight savings.

XJguy

[5-90]

I bet you didn't know that there was talk a few years ago of using Velcro (I'm not kidding!) to stick Corvette body parts together and to the unibidy, because drilling holes and putting bolts in was causing stress risers in the fibreglas panels! True story - I seem to recall this being aroun 1993 or thereabouts.

The worst part is, it made sense. Velcro actually can benefit in it's bonding from being shaken, and the hook-and-loop panels being cast into the fibreglas would not come loose (no moreso than screws and bolts) and would eliminate the stress of drilling and that caused by the constant vibration of metal in contact with the fibreglas

From a standpoint of pure engineering, it actually makes sense... Given the preponderance of Aluminum in the English auto marques (ever try to strip the paint off of a Rolls-Royce?) going to rivets would make sense, as Aluminum rivets would be better than steel screws - ever hear of Galvanic action? Wicked corrosion - a good example can be found from the use of Zinc sacrificial anodes in plumbing and marine applications...

5-90

[MistWolf]

Originally posted by Scott Mac.
Thats all and good, but what if some of us don't have access to quallity pricey aircraft fastners. Also its a pain to have to drill out rivits.

The pros of rivets don't outweigh the cons of nuts & bolts, pun intended.

Quality solid rivits are cheaper per unit than nuts & bolts. If you have a friend that does aircraft sheetmetal work he's just as likely to help you out for a pizza as is your buddy with a bender & welder. As for removal, I'd much rather drill out a row of rivits than wrassle with a like number of nuts & bolts. In the original context I was talking about riviting together the sheetmetal to return the strength lost if you trim the rear fenders too much or simply want to fill in some holes with sheetmetal. I think the biggest problem with riviting in an automotive application is simply that most folks aren't familiar with the process.

PS- Thanks for the intential pun :) Riviting humor