C2 Door Rivets

[davidroberson]

While installing the door on my 63 roadster, I noticed that there was quite a bit of play where the fiberglass door shell is riveted to the metal door subframe. I bought some correct solid aluminum rivets with hopes of replacing the loose ones. But now I cant figure out how to get to the back side of the rivets to compress them into place.

I am doing a body off resto and I want to make sure that I do this right.

Any ideas?

Dave Roberson

[Michael H.]

Re: C2 Door Rivets

Hey Dave -

I had a similar problem with my 1963 roadster. I spoke with Long island Corvette and they said the factory used a press tool before the door was fully assembled. They said you can try and hold a dolly on the inside of the rivet and ball peen hammer it from the outside, although this looked like a shaky way to do it. I opted to use large pop rivets with an air-powered rivet gun. You can then fill the dimple in the rivet, paint over it and never see the difference.