Removing Pop-Rivets?

Has anyone figured out a good way to remove pop rivets from sheet metal? All the tin work on my Henry J is attached with them and I need to pull all the panels off.

Obviously, I could just burn a drill bit though them or knock the heads off with a chisel, but these methods are destructive to the panels I want to save. So I started searching...

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/rivetremoval.php

This seems to be the hot ticket, my question is, has anyone here used it, and is it work the 60 bucks? Thanks, David

 

If you drill them out properly, you will not harm your panels at all. If you have 1/8 rivets in your tin, use a #30 bit.

Tim @ www.irrationalmetalworks.com

 

I use a drill bit with no problems... just take the head off and pop the rest out..

 

Exactly. You just need a drill bit the size of the rivet itself, NOT the head. Once you drill out the center the head usually spins right onto the bit or can be easily knocked off.

 

I have drilled out thousands of pop rivets in .016 Alminum w/o damaging the base material. If I can not damage the sheetmetal equivilent of aluminum foil, the body panels on your car should not be a problem...

 

Those tools are designed for removing solids, cherry loc's and cherry mac's, jo-bolts, and viso-locs. Easiest way I have found is sand the heads off and get a pin punch and knock the stems out.

 

You Don't Need That Thing. Just Drill It Out

 

yup...drill em out..done

 

Rossco does it the same way I do. I use a small hand held belt sander to take the head down to as thin as possible the just tap them through. If they are steel rivets you may have to drill a little bit to get them trough but this decreases the chances of them rotating in the hole while drilling. Even then you can angle your drill a little and they will stop rotating enough to drill them through. At least a pop rivet has a hole to keep them aligned. Cherry Max's have to be drilled to remove the lock. Pop rivets don't have a lock.

 

Just drill em out, if the head starts spinning before you are through just drill at a slight angle while holding the drill motor with 2 hands.

 

That tool is not for removing pop rivets

It is for removing REAL RIVETS

You know Gun.... bucking bar.... Maybe you don't

Real rivets don't have a hole in the middle. So you need to punch em then drill em

This tool goes over the rivet's head and locates the drill. So no center punching......... Much gooder!

I have had one for years they are work well and are worth every penny

But not for pop rivets

Quick tap with a sharp chisel...... not the kind you get from Sears and sorry don't have a photo and haven't found that box yet
The one you need is flat on the bottom and rolled the rivets head off to the side

Steel rivets I use a solid carbide center drill ... the cut quick and last forever

Hope that helps

 

Easiest way to get a cherry loc is to pin punch the stem past the lock, then knock the stem out, grab a awl and pop the head off.

 

Steel rivets or alloy? A GOOD quality paint scraper and a light hammer makes short work of alloy rivets, especially old corroded ones.

 

DRILL! Make sure your bit is very sharp, andif some spinning begins, put vise grips on the back side, if you can get to them. Slow and easy makes for the best job; damage should not be a problem.

 

Not sure about the 2 hands thing, but yeah, what he said.

 

Less likely to slip off the rivet and leave a squiggly line across the panel if you hold it with 2 hands and pay attention, don't ask me how I know. I have been drilling out rivets since 1973 and this works just fine.

 

After all thats the second thing the hole in the center is for, (drilling them out)

 

Ok, cool.

 

Rossco has the key,they are probley cherry locks and have a steel lock ring in them. Center punch the stem and remove lock ring than no problem,just drill 1/8 use #30 drill 5/32 #21 drill 3/16 #10 drill.Just make sure the steel lock ring is removed first.Airline Mech-40 years.

 

I'm with pumpgas. A sharp bit is the key. Don't be afraid to waste a couple of bits instead of the panels>>>>.

 

Wow, lots of passion about pop-rivets.... I really never even thought about them until I saw them on this car, last time I set one in a hunk of metal was 10th grade shop class.

In the past I recall having about a 90% success rate on drilling pop-rivets, other times the rivet just spins and other methods are needed.

These are interior panels on the henry J, mostly in blind places like doorpanels and such. Most of them are about as thin as a pop-can, parts of the floor are 1/8" thick. There is almost no support behind most of this stuff, every part of the body structure was cut out. Sticking a naked drill bit in some of these things just seems like a bad idea.

 

Then just sand the heads off, another neat little tool that no one else has brought up is a "Rivet Shaver". I dont know excatly how much room you got but if you have a dotco.."90 degree sander" rated at about 22,000 rpm and some sanding attachments 120 grit 1 to 2 inch disk works best..Doesnt take to much at a time, but still doest it quickly. Hit the head of the rivet tell you can tell a simple hit from a punch will knock it out...know if you have to wale on it sand it some more. If the door is open enough to get something on the back side to back up the material near where your knocking out the rivet with a bucking bar, or backing block. Most of all take your time, dont rush it, believe me pulling some rivets out of a door is not as bad as de-skining a wing.