ground the head off of one of the rivits for the rear spring hanger and with a regulat size hammer and piece of rod the rivit does not want to move. How hard is it usually to knock a rivit out of the frame once you grind the head off? should a small sledge hammer and a punch knock one out or do i need more than this? Read where others said it was a pain but did not see anyone say exactly how hard it was to drive one out of the frame. Should i use something else for this like?
CK5
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rivits
- Thread starter ronnny
- Start date
Hossbaby50
3/4 ton status
Usually a small sledge hammer and a punch will drive out the rivet as long as the head is ground off. Hell, I have used a large chisel and a sledge to cut off rivet heads, that is a PITA.
Harley
Harley
I prefer an air chisel with a special blunt chisel I made myself. The regular "point" chisel tends to penetrate and spread the rivet in the hole. Usually takes a minute or so start to finish using only the chisel. I also sometimes "slot" the head of the rivet with a 1/4" grinding stone just to make the head come off easier with less marring of the piece (if I'm reusing).
But to answer your question, they usually come out without too terribly much difficulty. However, if the pieces joined have been damaged, twisted, or otherwise place in any sort of bind at all, the shear across the hole can make them VERY difficult to get out, even with my tools. If it's just not cooperating, your only real choice (especially without an air chisel) is to drill the thing to make it easier to drive through.
But to answer your question, they usually come out without too terribly much difficulty. However, if the pieces joined have been damaged, twisted, or otherwise place in any sort of bind at all, the shear across the hole can make them VERY difficult to get out, even with my tools. If it's just not cooperating, your only real choice (especially without an air chisel) is to drill the thing to make it easier to drive through.
beaterchevy
Newbie
If you have a torch and impact chisle the easiest and cleanest way to get rid of rivets is heat the head till its a bright hot red an impact it off, then use a punch bit in the impact to drive the rivet out of the frame. Easiest with 2 guys, one on the torch one on the air. Can cut the heads of rivets at about 1 a minute or better.
Me and a buddy have done TONS of rivets lately and the above is hands down the easiest way.
Forget the grinder. Centerpunch, drill 3/8 just past the head and use a cold chisle and a normal hammer to slice the head off. as long as your center punch is half ass good then the rivet head should chisle off with little effort. After the heads gone again use a round punch and drive out of the frame: this part may take a bigger hammer depending on which bracket you are cutting.
Drilling a 3/16" pilot hole first about 1/2" deep into the rivit helps to get them out of the frame too.. the rivet will colapse into the pilot hole and shrink enough so you can hammer them out easily.
Hope that helps. We wreck alot of trucks this way.
Me and a buddy have done TONS of rivets lately and the above is hands down the easiest way.
Forget the grinder. Centerpunch, drill 3/8 just past the head and use a cold chisle and a normal hammer to slice the head off. as long as your center punch is half ass good then the rivet head should chisle off with little effort. After the heads gone again use a round punch and drive out of the frame: this part may take a bigger hammer depending on which bracket you are cutting.
Drilling a 3/16" pilot hole first about 1/2" deep into the rivit helps to get them out of the frame too.. the rivet will colapse into the pilot hole and shrink enough so you can hammer them out easily.
Hope that helps. We wreck alot of trucks this way.
Well, sometimes, if it was a "good" rivet, it'll not come out even after grinding flat. But most rivets aren't this good. Usually they practically fall out once you grind the head off.
About 30% of all the rivets I grind off need to be drilled out to 1/4" deep enough that it goes past the two joined pieces of metal and pounded out with a punch. This makes it very time consuming.
If you're good with a torch you can usually heat the head of the rivet up until it's about to puddle then quickly blow it off. Then you hit it with the ball end of a ballpeen hammer and it usually shoots out. This makes a rivet removal last about 30 seconds from start to finish. It's not possible to do this in some places because where you blow the metal might be captive. Like front axle front spring hangers.
About 30% of all the rivets I grind off need to be drilled out to 1/4" deep enough that it goes past the two joined pieces of metal and pounded out with a punch. This makes it very time consuming.
If you're good with a torch you can usually heat the head of the rivet up until it's about to puddle then quickly blow it off. Then you hit it with the ball end of a ballpeen hammer and it usually shoots out. This makes a rivet removal last about 30 seconds from start to finish. It's not possible to do this in some places because where you blow the metal might be captive. Like front axle front spring hangers.
beater_k20
Banned
i just used an air hammer and a rivet splitter to knock the heads off, and then a pointed punch in the air hammer to knock them out of the frame. took about 10 seconds per rivet.
FWP
CRS
beater_k20 said:
What's a rivet splitter look like?
