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This is for Dan (Gdads51)

Here's some pics of the rivet squeezer I built from a pair of bolt cutters (tried a vice grip pliers first but it didn't have enough oomph) to set the rivets on my hood halves.
I had a set of rivet set tools that go in an air hammer, so sacrificed one for this. There was no room to hammer on the rivets to roll them over, so "invented" this. I needed to grind off some material for clearance, but it worked pretty well. The anvil side was modified a bit from the original for different attempt at riveting something together. It was just a piece of steel I had laying around. I think the bolt cutter function will still work on smaller bolts. The distance between the die and anvil needs to be customized for the length of the rivets, so it's a pretty much single purpose tool.

Kevin,

Thanks for the "special tool" info for setting your hood rivets.

I am looking at creating something similar for setting original style AD grille assembly rivets as I don't want to use machine screws and nuts. I have an old long handled lineman's crimper (about 36" overall length) that has a broken crimper jaw tooth tip (lost about a 1/4" of length) that I may try your modification on.

The nice thing about the lineman's crimper is the jaws can open a good bit and are shaped like long curved fang teeth with a good depth reach too. The long handles also make for a much lower effort level needed to set a rivet. Might be enough to get the depth reach needed to work around the grille bars and supports to set the rivets without also crimping the grille parts themselves?

May or may not be worth the effort, but won't know without trying.

Dan

Dan, unless that lineman's crimper has a toggle linkage like the bolt cutters do, you may not be able to generate enough "squeeze" to roll the rivet over. Although with 36" overall length, you may be OK.
I was convinced that vice-grips would work, as they can squeeze the soup out of about anything, but they just couldn't do the job. They were cheapo HF, as I didn't want to sacrifice my good ones, but even the name brand vice-grips couldn't roll the rivet over.
On the grille, part of the issue is limited clearance between the joint and the front grille bars.

Good Luck

Kevin,

First off, let me correct myself and say I misnamed the tool I have and intend to try and use. It was originally meant to be a chain repair tool [zoro.com] for spreading/compressing chain links. Was a "roadkill tool" found some time ago that has seen better days but think can be repurposed.

They do in fact have a type of toggle linkage somewhat like bolt cutters, just larger than most mid-sized bolt cutters with almost 4" deep jaws. A few modifications should create the needed two compression contact points on the jaw tips to get the job done I think. Obviously I will need to clean-up some of the inner small jaw "teeth" to create the extra clearance for working around the grille pieces.

Hope this makes a bit more sense.

Dan

Dan

I think that should work well.

Again, you need to adjust the distance between the anvil and the die to fit the rivet length. Maybe there's room for an adjustable height anvil (weld a nut on and use a threaded anvil?)

Thanks Kevin.

Good thought on making an adjustable anvil head. Adding to my tool knowledge file for tool fabrication.

Dan

I worked for Lockheed Martin in and around fab shops for many years, not quite sure if I have seen a rivet squeeze quite like that? Hey if it works why not, good luck..

Commercially available rivet squeezers like THIS [erivet.com] seem to have clearance issues to me, even for riveting the hood flanges together. And I couldn't see spending that kind of money for a single use tool. On top of the basic tool, you have to buy dies for each size rivet. I think the bolt cutters cost me $15.