Rivets

[tepponogu]

Thanks psg! Is there a specific type of anvil that I need?

 

[jigngrub]

We tightened them up with the hammer and anvil method, and it worked somewhat.

That's the problem with rebucking rivets, it's a temporary fix because the rivet is already weakened at will leak again. If you rebuck, you'll have to rebuck again, and again, and again.

If you're going to take the time and effort to rebuck rivets you might as well go ahead and drill out the old ones and install new ones. It only takes a minute to drill out a rivet.

 

[PSG-1]

Thanks psg! Is there a specific type of anvil that I need?

Not sure. When we did it, I had a friend under the boat, holding a 8 lb sledgehammer against the bottom of each rivet while I hit from the inside of the boat, using a ball-peen hammer. Like I said, it slowed the leaks down, but only by a little bit.

But it was better than what I had before. When I'd be running along, the rivets would shoot streams of water a few inches high! Looked like I had a sprinkler system in my boat.

But from my own experience, along with what jigngrub said, it's only a temporary fix.

 

[soky72]

You can get 3/16 and 1/4 inch aluminum BRAZIER rivets from Granger. Boats use Brazier rivets usually in those two sizes. My boat has the 3/16 but when you remove some of the leaking rivets you will sometimes see the hole may not be perfectly round from the rivet movement wallowing them out from drilling them out imperfectly so I redrill those holes one size up to 1/4 inch. I then ordered Brazier Rivet Bits for an air hammer off the net. The 3/16 and 1/4 inch are about $10-12 a piece. You don't have to have an air hammer to do it but it certainly would be quicker. You can put the bit against the rivets concave head and press as hard against the boat as possible and tap the other side with a hammer. It looks factory when your done. The 5200 sealant is a good idea too. Once you have done it its so much easier then you would have guessed.

 

[tepponogu]

Okay. So if i'm understanding this correctly, the 3/16 & 1/4 measurements are the width of the rivets. How long should the rivets be? Looking at the links to mcmaster that were provided earlier, there are a lot of different sizes. Here (Colorado), at least, I know you have to have a business license to order from Granger. Not sure why, but that's the way they've always been. An air hammer isn't going to be an option for me, there isn't an air compressor where mu boat is being stored, so which rivet is going to be my best bet (it'll also ne a one man job. I'm also very.poor so, the fewer tools I meed to buy, the better)? I know there was some disagreement as to what is best.

 

[jigngrub]

3/16 and 1/4 are not the width of the rivet, they're the diameter. The width of a rivet is the width of the head.

The length of a rivet is determined by the thicknesses of the 2 materials that you're riveting together. This is called the Grip Range. You could probably get by with a 1/8-14" grip range, but you need to check the material you're fastening yourself to be sure.

For $20 + S&H you can get this heavy duty rivet tool.
https://www.harborfreight.com/heavy-duty-17-1-2-half-inch-hand-riveter-with-collection-bottle-66422.html

For $17 + S&H you can get 100 1/4" dia. closed end blind rivets that will make fixing your boat a one man job.
https://www.rivetsonline.com/closed-end-blind-rivet-pr84asph.html

Fixing your boat will be as easy as this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MA1-5NXjs&feature=related

It doesn't get any easier or simpler than that.

 

[tepponogu]

Good info! Thanks jig!