Rivets

[mud hungry]

are they worth drilling or cutting out or the frame and replacing with grade 8 bolts. I have seen a lot of guys do this and I was just wondering if this is worth doing at all. If it is are there normally any problems with realignment after words with body mounts spring shackles and cross members? Opinions please. Pro's and con's to either.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Not unless you have to do something with whatever they are holding together.

 

[RockinChevy]

Not unless you have to do something with whatever they are holding together.

x2

 

[Hossbaby50]

Not unless you have to do something with whatever they are holding together.

or unless the rivets are starting to loosen whatever they are holding together.

Front hanger of the front springs are notorious for trying to pull through. When that happens though just weld the brackets together.

Harley

 

[slyguy_22]

i would never remove a rivit in place of a bolt. the only reason people bolt stuff like shackle flips and such is because we dont have the rivit guns. rivits are way better than bolts. ive seen plenty of sheared grade 8 bolts but never seen a sheared rivit.

 

[1979jimmy350]

in the rivet vs. bolt debate, a bolt has a more consistent clamping force, but may loose that over time with out lock tight or locking washers, As for the shear force, a Grade 8 is heat treated and a rivet is not that leads to a big difference, if a Grade 8 sheared a rivet would have been yielded with the same load applied so they would have both failed under the given load. If you really wanted to take the time and go through the entire frame you could make is a little stronger by replacing the rivets, but your time would be better spent boxing the frame for added strenght

 

[mud hungry]

Ok I understand the time part. It would be a lot of time taking all the rivets out. What about the alignment part would it be out of alignment if you used all bolts as apposed to all rivets. I am not leaning one way or the other but My brother in law and I were talking about this. He was saying that bolts don't fit in the holes nearly as tightly as rivets. I think he said that they are off like 1/32 of an inch or something like that. Either way with all that little difference it could prove to be off a lot when you finish the frame. Any thoughts on this aspect?

 

[1979jimmy350]

if you use the factory alignment holes or only replace a few rivits at a time i would not worry about that, if you break down the entire frame then bolt that might cause an issue

 

[Hossbaby50]

$5 says most everybodies frames are not square to begin with so misalignment from replacing rivets is probably not going to do much. It isn't terribly hard to tweak a stock chevy frame.

Harley

 

[mud hungry]

Hey guys thanx. The information is great. As it is right now this is where my build is right now.

 

[vortec]

Not unless you have to do something with whatever they are holding together.

x 1000

i'd trust a properly-secured grade 8 more for strength, but they'll back off eventually, from vibration, temp change, etc. just leave the rivets alone until you don't have a choice.