Re-riveting know how?

[Private_collector]

Thanks to you both for the links.

I am quite interested in looking into making a portable hydraulic rivet press.
I'm no engineer, but it's much easier to manufacture something after you have already seen somebody else do it & kind of takes the hard work out if you can copy one that has evolved through the trial stages into an efficient tool.

I have a Ford chassis which has had 2 rear cross members removed for shortening but they never finished the job. Of course, at least one of the members has been misplaced or lost in transit as the truck moved through several previous owners.

Always a pain to undo this kind of vandalism, no matter how well intentioned, but despite this, the chassis is still worth saving. I don't want to see this poor old thing get scrapped if I can avoid it. The irony is that several months ago I arranged to meet a fellow at a farm where he was retrieving the front half of a Ford F60, but he didn't want to take the rear portion of chassis or rear axle. I bought the axle & wheels, after chassis was cut forward of the axle. Together we took the spring shackle pins out and I had the axle loaded onto my box trailer. He offered me the chassis at the time, but I declined due to space. The chassis had (possibly still has) the cross member that I am now wanting! It's about 2 hr from my place, and I have not been able to contact the farm owner to ask if I can still have chassis. I will keep trying as I know it is EXACTLY what I now need!

Rule of thumb: NEVER pass up offer of ANY parts if at all possible. You will no doubt need them at some stage.

to you both. Thanks again!

[aj.lec]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Thanks to you both for the links.

I am quite interested in looking into making a portable hydraulic rivet press.

Tried this Dosent work as easily as you would expect .Very expensive when press unit cracks in half .Great force is required and therefore the press needs to be massive and then dosent fit even if hot rivetting

Definately no expert in the matter

Easiest way I found was to make up a few different length keepers .Usually at lengths to fit tightly where you want to rivet
-Make a good hammering unit(made mine from jack hammer bit)
-Initial heat of rivets and put in chassis
-Lock in with keepers and wedge tight
-heat exposed end with oxy until red to white hot and commence forcing down with hammer and bar
-heat multiple times and hammer in a circular motion to get smooth consistent doming on rivets (useable heat only lasts about 10 seconds)
-when hammering always make sure the keepers are tight , they come loose after a few hits and you get a loose sloppy rivet .very hard to tighten up later

[Mike K]

Andrew

Are you manually hitting the red hot part with a hammer ?

Would a compressed air hammer be better ?

MIKE

[aj.lec]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Andrew

Are you manually hitting the red hot part with a hammer ?

Would a compressed air hammer be better ?

MIKE

Initially yes as doing that seems to get the rivet to swell in to the hole better and start a dome shape and then finish off with the forming tool
I tried a air hammer but was a bit small for the job and achieved little . A decent size one should work
Tried an electric jackhammer as well but it gets messy pretty quickly
In the end for the amount I had to do it was quicker and easier just to do it with the sledge .I did about 40 in less than 8 hours start to finish

[Ganmain Tony]

Tony

Ive encountered the very problem you are about to tackle. My truck was changed to 2wd and in the process, the transfer case got tossed and the crossmember to mount the gear box gas axed and the middle bit (of the crosse member) altered into a 2wd mount. It wasnt pretty...

I drilled out the rivets, removed the remaining bit of the cross member, found another chassis, drilled the crossmember out and bolted it into my truck. Has worked out fine.

[Private_collector]

Thats very comforting to hear, believe me.

I hope you don't mind, but I copied and filed the photo you sent with your posting. Reason being, the cross member seen in very back of your picture is another source of puzzlement for me because previous owner had 'modified' this one with a small bracket which I was grateful to see was NOT in your picture.

I spoke to a local engineering company this afternoon regarding their experiences with hot riveting (they work mostly on, and rebuilding heavy vehicles). Put simply, they had NO experience, having never attempted to or given consideration to even trying to re-rivet. Grrrrrrrrrrr!

The whole idea of using any degree of sustained physical exertion gives me shudders to be frank. Since I first suffered an illness that has resulted in me being as weak as a kitten, I don't have much strength or stamina.

Might sleep on the whole idea for a few days, and discuss with my Father-in-law. He would be the one doing any welding that would be required to manufacture anything hydraulic. I'm more 'an ideas man', as Darryl Kerrigan would say.

[Mike K]

tony

I'm no structural engineer . But watching various TV shows on truck building in the USA ( the WINEBAGO factory and the dump truck factory ) , I was surprised to see that they routinely bolt chassis rails and crossmembers together. It seems to be the norm these days, no rivetting done at all.

A friend in the UK, pulled apart his chassis and put it back together with un brako bolts ..no problems

MIKE

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Thats very comforting to hear, believe me.

I hope you don't mind, but I copied and filed the photo you sent with your posting. Reason being, the cross member seen in very back of your picture is another source of puzzlement for me because previous owner had 'modified' this one with a small bracket which I was grateful to see was NOT in your picture.

The whole idea of using any degree of sustained physical exertion gives me shudders to be frank. Since I first suffered an illness that has resulted in me being as weak as a kitten, I don't have much strength or stamina.

Might sleep on the whole idea for a few days, and discuss with my Father-in-law. He would be the one doing any welding that would be required to manufacture anything hydraulic. I'm more 'an ideas man', as Darryl Kerrigan would say.

Happy for you to do so Tony. Incidentally the drilling was hard work. But I probably could have used a sharper drill bit from memory. Starting with a smaller bit and working up is much easier too...