A couple of weeks ago there was a thread on this board concerning using the soft aluminum rivets and the beat way to "peen" them over. Today I finished attaching some long lost insulation and heat shield brackets on my '69 and thought my experience might be helpful. I purchased a 3/8" taper punch (Old Forge #1979) and hollowed out the end leaving it concave. I lowered the pressure on my compressor so the air hammer made an impact but was not full strength (you will have to experiment a little to get it right). I cut the rivet so that approximately 1/4 of an inch or so extended beyond the bracket. I had a friend on the inside of the car hold the fat end of a log splitting wedge against the rivet head. I simply put the hollow of the taper punch on the rivet stem and pulled the trigger until the rivet was set. It left a perfect convex "button" against the bracket and the bracket was as tight as could be.
I was really pleased at how easy this was and how perfect the rivetting came out.
I hope this helps someone sometime.
Jeff Salz #13182
I was really pleased at how easy this was and how perfect the rivetting came out.
I hope this helps someone sometime.
Jeff Salz #13182
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