how to knock off frame rivets?

[shifty]

okay before you answer, i must say: I do not have a die grinder, an angle grinder, a torch or a sawzall. with that in mind, i need to know the easiest possible way to quickly remove the frame rivets or whatever those stupid rounded things are that hold in crossmembers. I have a manual xmember i need to remove and part of it is in an awkward position under the tranny hump, so an angle grinder won't fit in there.

is there like ... a pnuematic rivet buster or something I can use to shear them off that i might could rent from Home Depot or something?

look forward to hearing opinions. I got lots of chisels, but i'm afraid with one or two of these i'd risk denting my body.

[jugernot]

I drilled through one side, using liquid wrench to keep the drill bit from over heating, then put a phillips screw driver in the hole and knocked it out with a couple of taps. It took about 10 minutes of drilling on each rivet. I think I drilled out about 15 rivets and installed ECE super drop cross member and suspension parts.

Hope this helps. Oh the bits I used I bought at a swap meet. They were aircraft drill bits with a stepped tip.

[shifty]

cool, hadn't thought of that. i have a dremel also. i have a lot of bits with it, but not sure how much that will help. you think it would be good idea to drill a pilot hole first with a small bit, then follow up with a larger one so it has a guide?

[jugernot]

I did drill a pilot hole, but only enough to hold the bigger bit in place. Other wise the bit would spin off the rivet. There is a pic of the stepped bit I mentioned.

[pjmoreland]

If you have easy access to a pneumatic chisel and a pneumatic punch, in my experience that is by far the fastest way to remove the rivets. You chisel the heads off, maybe 5 seconds per head, if that, and then you punch the remaining half of the rivet out, which takes another 5 seconds per head. Of course it could take you a couple of hours to track down the tools. You could use that time to drill the rivets out instead.

[pjmoreland]

If you decide to drill the rivets out, I would definitely recommend drilling a pilot hole first--maybe 1/8". Also as a minimum, make sure you use high-speed steel drill bits. It will save you a lot of time if you use nice drill bits. It also helps to use a center punch to help get the drill bit started on the domed head of the rivet.

[shifty]

i'll call home depot tomorrow and see if i can get one. been wanting to fire up my compressor for a while anyways.

[Fred T]

Best way if using a drill is to start by filing a small flat on the head, then centerpunching. Best if you hit dead center. The step bits are nice, but it helps to drill two holes without the step bit. Sharp, high quality bits help, along with a slow drill motor. The rivets were installed with a hydraulic squeeze gun, which would fill the hole with the soft rivet, meaning they can be tough to get out. Sometimes you have to drill completely through to remove one, most can have one head drilled off and the shaft pounded out with a good punch.

Steel rivets are relatively soft, and have a shear strength slightly higher than a grade 2 bolt. When replacing with bolts, you need to ream the hole out to the next higher bolt size. You can use grade 5 or 8 replacements. The 8 usually has a gold cadmium plating, which is superior to the zinc usually found on the 5. Around here I buy mine at a farm store, they sell by the pound are are a bunch cheaper. I can get cad plated grade 5 there, which is not available at the local hardware store. And these are US made bolts from Rockford.

[mrein3]

I needed to do the upper ball joints on my 71 Chevelle two weeks ago. Grinding and pounding rivets sucks so I picked up an air hammer at Wal*Mart for about $20. (I can't believe I didn't already own one of these)

The chisel point that was in the air hammer box was dull so I made it sharp on my bench grinder. The heads of the rivets rolled right off like pjmoreland said with that bit. Except for one stubborn one on each side the remaining part of each rivet punched right out with the dull punch bit that was in the box too.

I was able to take the upper control arms off the car and work on them on the bench. The only issue you may have with rivets on the frame is clearance for the air hammer to get in there.

[farside847]

I used a $15 home depo hand grinder myself.

But, if you need to drill it, use gloves, those metal shards are HOT!

[mocwon]

Originally Posted by shifty

i'll call home depot tomorrow and see if i can get one. been wanting to fire up my compressor for a while anyways.

You'll need a good air hammer and quality chisel to do this reasonably quick. A cheap one won't do the job effectively. I must have air chiseled off close to a hundred rivets while building my truck and the way pjmoreland described is the way to go....

[shifty]

thanks guys, gonna shop around today and see what i can find for less than $50.

anyone need a manual xmember?

[72ironmike]

Use the drill, start with 1/8 and graduate up to 3/8, drilling completely thru the rivit then chisel. Works great with little effort. I've used the air chisel, sawzall (scraped the frame a little), hammer & chisel and grinder at one time or another. Drilling then chiseling was effortless.

[shifty]

Ok, that must be the solution then. I went out and bought a Stanley air hammer tonight (not the best quality, I know only 2400 spm), got the chisel bit out, sharpened it to a point like this > , set to 90psi on the compressor per the tool instructions, wailed away at a top rivet and the compressor filled up 5 times over 15 minutes and ¼ of the damned rivet is still there. I'm damned near deaf.

I'm heading to mexico in the next 36 hours, so I guess it's gonna hafta wait. :\ Really wanted to get this bastard xmember out, but ... arrgghhh.

[4x4Poet]

What Shifty should be using.

[shifty]

I know, I know!!! Damnit!

I expected it to be done in 5 seconds and they'd be sheared off like hot butter, based on the posts above so I wouldn't need ear protection! Now, in addition to buying the damned air hammer, I gotta go buy some earplugs!!! Double arrgggghhh! LOL

[shifty]

PS - I'm sorry I'm so stupid y'all. I swear, I'm really smart, I'm mechanically inclined, I just haven't had the deacades on experience a lot of you other guys have had. :\

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by shifty

I know, I know!!! Damnit!

I expected it to be done in 5 seconds and they'd be sheared off like hot butter, based on the posts above so I wouldn't need ear protection! Now, in addition to buying the damned air hammer, I gotta go buy some earplugs!!! Double arrgggghhh! LOL

Sorry about that. I forgot to mention to put in a set of ear plugs. I may just be getting old or am tired of shouting at my dad (42 year Ford plant worker) and father-in-law (60+ years and counting farmer) but I always put in a set of ear plugs when doing something like this.

You have to get all of the head of the rivet off before you try the punch.

I too bought a Stanley air hammer. When I worked at a shop all day I bought and used Snap-On tools. Now that I'm at home doing this infrequently I can get by with a tool like a Stanley from Wal*Mart.

That Stanley chisle attachment, after a few seconds at the grinder, took those rivet heads right off. I was lucky in that I was working on a piece off the car. You may have a harder time with the piece still on the truck.

[4x4Poet]

When you guys say "dremel", do you mean air cutoff wheel? Do dremels come strong enough to cut thick, mild steel?

[4x4Poet]

Originally Posted by shifty

PS - I'm sorry I'm so stupid y'all. I swear, I'm really smart, I'm mechanically inclined, I just haven't had the deacades on experience a lot of you other guys have had. :\

I'll take half of that. I'm not mechanically inclined and my decades of experience working on cars has been limited until of late. So you're twice as capable as me!









Unfortunately for you, that's still not saying much.

[pjmoreland]

I'm sorry to hear the chisel didn't work very well. Did it stay sharp, or did it go dull? I wonder if the chisel softened up when you sharpened it. I like to dunk chisels in water right after heating them up on a grinder. Helps keep them from softening up.

I'm not sure what the brand was of the air chisel I used. I can tell you it was fairly large and heavy-duty feeling. I used it a bunch when I worked in a wrecking yard.

I removed my manual transmission crossmember using a drill and it took me about 6 hours. About three months later I removed some rivets for the first time using the air chisel, and I remember being totally amazed at how easy it was.

I'm sorry if I steered you in the wrong direction.

[StingRay]

If a chisel isn't working it's either too short of a stroke, too little air pressure, too dull a chisel or a combination of the three. A decent medium stroke chisel with 120 PSI behind it and a sharp chisel will knock a rivet head off in seconds. If you still have trouble drill the heads first then chisel and punch.

[shifty]

Will give it a shot. Heading to Mexico shortly, so ... no time to try it now. Gotta wait till next week.

As always, everyone, thanks for the good advice. Your experiences are always helpful, even if I can't reprodcue them

[cableguy0]

dont regulate down to use the air chisel let the compressor run full bore. the air chisel will never get any force with the compressor constantly running because its set to low open it up and let it run