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Removing frame rivets

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lochenjons

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I know theres a thread already about this somewhere. I searched. I found. I read. But I'm still not having the best of luck with these things. And reading posts about "I use a drill and hammer and they only take me ~30 secs" was really starting to get annoying. :rolleyes:

I'm doing the 52" spring swap and getting those rivets out from the front hanger is a HUGE pain. So far I've got 2 basically out, and another one thats close. Total time: approx. 3 hours :mad:.

I have a grinder, drill, and hammer/screwdriver. I;ve drillled all inside the rivet, then i ground down the bottom of it. That in itself takes forever, and still the rivets aren't coming out. My plan was to get them all pretty close to that point and then take a screwdriver and pound it in between the bracket and the hanger. But just getting them to that point takes forever.

Any tips/easier ways of doing this?? :confused: And dont say use a torch or anything. I would if I had one, beleive me
 
The way I was doing it was to drill all the way through the rivets (getting progressively larger) then taking a large cold chisel, cut off one head, then use a punch and pound the remaining section out.

I can't see a screwdriver being anywhere near strong enough to do this...end up like me, with a very large screwdriver that now has no handle. :)
 
dyeager535 said:
The way I was doing it was to drill all the way through the rivets (getting progressively larger) then taking a large cold chisel, cut off one head, then use a punch and pound the remaining section out.

I can't see a screwdriver being anywhere near strong enough to do this...end up like me, with a very large screwdriver that now has no handle. :)
Click to expand...
Basically waht I did, except I cant find my chisel (or most of my other tools at any given moment come to htink of it :rolleyes:). The screwdrivers arent really strong enough, but I'm using all my broken ones and one "sharp" one and they've kinda held up so far. Mostly cause there's no room to really hammer hard enough.
 
I did this ... same tools you have, serious PITA, but.

I seem to recall grinding the head flat was best, gave a nice surface to drill into. Step drill bits might work really well here, but I didn't have any.

Once the middle was drilled out I recall it being easier grind the head off... and once the head is off you bang the bastard out and shout "WOOHOO!"

-- A
 
I use to do the grind & drill & beat method. I blew mine out w/ the plasma cutter a couple of nights ago. I did the 56" spring swap.
 
Cut off torch and an air chisel. Heat till red hot and then wack the head off. Push remaining rivet through frame with punch while still hot.
 
The shank of the rivet is just about 1/2"- use a good drill bit, center punch and drill till the head drops off- then pry off the bracket. Grind down whats left of the shank and pop it through with a punch. Just did this with my shackle flip the other day. Took about 30 minutes total.
 
I just removed a bunch of rivets off the burb. I used an air hammer with chisel. Worked ok. Took some time a paitence but worked.

Would have loved to have a plasma cutter.
 
from the 2 or 3 that ive doen i just ground the head down flush then hit it HARD with a punch and hammer...
 
You can use a small 4" cutting wheel to make a series of cuts in the rivet head before using a grinder, makes the grinding go much faster. Just don't cut into your frame.
 
make sure you drill enough of the head out. Then use a chisel but use the corner of it to knock the rivet head off. If needed use the drill again to drill some of the rivet body. Then use a center punch that fits in the hole you just drilled and knock out the rivet.

It may take a little practice, but you will get the hang of it and the rest will fly by. Click on my build thread in my sig, somewhere in there I talk about removing rivets
 
the 4" cutoff wheel was what worked for me. Just slice the head off and punch it through with a hammer. Grinding the heads was taking longer than cutting them off. The airhammer did nothing at all except hurt my ears.
 
when I did mine I took all the heads off first using a cutoff wheel to "X" the head then and air chisle to cut the remains off. The spring hangers came off easy once all the rivit heads were gone, same with the upper shackle mounts. The rivet bodies were knocked out with an air hammer/punch. No doubt it's a good workout if your swinging a hammer.
 
I got the hang of it now with the drill, hammer/chisel method. I found my chisel finally...somehow it ended up in the bedroom :crazy:. My hanger was welded on a little too at one of the corners, havent looked at the other side yet
 
I used a grinder, then started using a drill & punch as well. Gave up because it was taking so long. Varied greatly on time for each rivet. Then I started again with an air chisel. First one was less than a minute:eek1: But soon started having problems again and gave up:mad: Took the "If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix it" method:bow: Replaced about 20 of 'em in total.

Heat? That certainly would help but don't have a cutting torch.
 
54inches said:
Dude, a 4" grinder @ 1 min per rivet is the best!
Click to expand...
yeah it would be if it worked, ive tried it. Ok with a 4.5" grinder, close enough. Besides its impossible to get the grinder up in there.
 
I use two methods:

Torch head off flush with frame, beat rivet out with hammer and 1/4" punch
Grind head off flush with frame, beat rivet out with hammer and 1/4" punch


I think I've only used a drill on rivets a couple times ever.
 
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