Removed the trailing arm cross member

[gysgtc]

I just finished removing the trailing arm cross member because the PO chopped it all up to put a 1 piece drive shaft in. After searching the board I tried all of the different ways to remove the rivets. My frame is sitting 12" off the ground on dollies. The front cross member with all new disc brakes is bolted on so I couldn't flip the frame over.
(1) Top 2 rivets on each side. Step drilled till head came off. Knocked rivet out with punch. Total time 20 min. Drills were nice and sharp.
(2) Bottom 3 rivets on one side. Used small dremel with cut off wheel to cut X's in rivet heads. Went thru a few 1" wheels. Used chisel and hammer to knock off heads.Used punch and hammer to knock rivet out. Total time 45 min.
(3) Bottom 3 rivets on other side. Sawzall with metal blade to cut heads off. Air hammer with blunt punch to knock rivets out. Total time 10 min. Scraped the frame up a bit but paint will take care of it. You have to remove one of the bottom rivets that do not go thru the cross member so you can get it to come out from between the frame rails. It will not ride over the rivet.

[Bert W]

If you had 3 more rivets to remove, I think you would be down to 2 minutes Sounds like a lot of work. I recently had to do some of that engineering on a radiator support bolt. Are you going back with bolts or welding it in?

[gysgtc]

Bolts.

[jtp67-72]

Just think how u will smile putting my new one back in...........lol.....jim

[68C15]

I have no problem removing rivets. each one takes about 15 seconds using my CP 1/2" air hammer with 175 psi shop pressure.