Advise drilling out the rivets and using grade 8 or grade 11 bolts, those should be plenty strong. Be sure to loctite them though...

Yep, it's a common problem. The solution is regularly greasing those fittings.

-Boyo


'48 Willys CJ-2A / '55.1 Chevy 3600 / '66 Austin-Healey 3000 / '04 Volvo wagon (parenthood!?)