The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk solid rivets

I am rewiring my 52 - 3100 and will be mounting new terminal boards on inner fenders. I need the solid rivets, two per board, and some tips how to install them. I have found rivets online but have to buy hundreds? I went to home deport and tractor supply no luck. Help. Thanks, Denis

Hollow rivets would be easier for you to set.
Bag of 100 on line will cost as much as a plastic package of 6 at a hardware store.

Jim thanks and I have tried that with no luck. Denis

I have some I bought for my trailer, I think they are 5/32, they might be too big for what you are looking for.
http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/category-s/206.htm

here is a link to their buck riveting basics manual

http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/BuckRivetingBasicsInitialRelease.pdf

What size are you looking for? I buy these by the pound in 3/16 and 1/4.

https://www.imperialsupplies.com/item/0730490?searchOverlayTerm=buck%20riveets

If you are close to a trailer repair shop, they have them. If bad goes to worse, I can send you some, but they will have to go parcel post because a letter can't be over 1/4" thick.

You can make rivets out of small carriage bolts. I did that to make replacement rivets for the rear fenders.
I had to reshape the heads to match the originals by putting them in a cordless drill and dressed them into shape on a bench grinder, then polished them on 400 grit sandpaper while still in the drill.
I didn't set them like rivets. I just used a nut and lock washer underneath where no one will see them.
Carl

McMaster Carr (onolne shop) has steel solid rivets. They sell in large quantities but are relatively cheap. I recall riveting sheet metal in my dad's shop. He used just a few sizes and used a rivet set for use with a hammer. The rivet was put in the hole in the metal to be fastened, bucked (backed up)with a heavy piece of steel, hit once with the set to upset it, then the set was moved to put the rivet into the hole in the set and hit again to push the two pieces of metal together, then back to the heading portion and hit a few times to form a head on it.
FWIW, the original rivets holding the rear fender crown brace to the fender were steel tubular style, but finding tubular rivets short enough and with the low domed head to match the originals is tough to do.

I'm pretty sure it's spelled "despot".

By the time you upset a solid rivet, on opposite sides of a fender, you will destroy the terminal boards and dent the fender. You have to buck one side and smash the other. Not to be used in phenolic or plastic or fiber board material. Even a pop rivet may smash too hard and bust the board.

You got your tubular rivets too, which they probably used because pop rivets weren't used back then on automobiles.

Use a solid rivet with a tinnerman on the backside. (no smashing)
There are various styles of Push nuts. The upper left one is for straight shafts (like a rivet shank). Push it on the rivet shank, on back side of fender, with a small socket. It will give you the look and retain the board.

For fender molding
Lowes and many places have rivets. Don't look at the quantity of this stuff look at the price. You can't buy four nails either.

There are also closed end rivets that are available ,you use a pop rivet gun and the one side is the same as a open rivet but the othere end is solid . I used these for a aluminum boat as they are solid and don't leak.if it is the look you are looking for they may be okay if you put them in from the opposite side .

That would possibly be ugly. I don't recommend pops for his terminal boards if they are non metallic. Don't know what they are yet.

Or...set a Rivnut and bolt it down.

Another option for the terminal board that would maintain the original look would be split rivets. Should be fine for holding the terminal board on.

Thanks everyone, not sure which approach I will take. Denis