Evening all,
I've just spent a good three hours or so rivetting the ali floor to the chassis (426 rivets! woohoo!), and despite looking like Popeye, It went
well!
I used a polyurethane sealant between the panel and chassis, and also a bit on each rivet too.
Does anyone feel the need to overcoat the heads of the rivets with sealant/point or anything? How about the entire underside of the car? Any
recommendations for a really tough paint?
Cheers
Andy
quote:
Originally posted by bigandy
Evening all,
I've just spent a good three hours or so rivetting the ali floor to the chassis (426 rivets! woohoo!), and despite looking like Popeye, It went well!
Well done
I used a polyurethane sealant between the panel and chassis, and also a bit on each rivet too.
Nice!
Does anyone feel the need to overcoat the heads of the rivets with sealant/point or anything? How about the entire underside of the car? Any recommendations for a really tough paint?
No, No!
Cheers
Andy
No to coating the underside!!! Are you mad?
good coat of stone chip and paint at a minimum
I would say I was still partly sane. ASk most people who know me, and they would tend to agree that I am indeed mad!
I'm not too worried about most partsof the panel, It's just around the rivets really. I was thinking that a coat of some kind of brushable
sealant to ensure that no moisture can ingress the rivets/chassis.
Cheers ofr the opinions anyway, It's much appreciated!
Andy
All common pop rivets retain the head in the rivet when the mandrel breaks, thus blocking the hole hrough the rivet. This will provide sufficient
sealing to keep out the rain.
Mick
What about the exposed bit of steel where the mandrel breaks off? This is not only very close to a chunk of aluminium (dissimilar metal corrosion?)
and also exposed to water, salty roads, muck etc.
I would expect that over time, this sort of environment would lead to the ally bit of the rivet, and nearby panel corroding away nicely. That is the
reason for me wanting to seal the moisture out of the rivets themselves. The ally panel, I'm not too bothered about though.
If anyone has any suggestions for a good (preferably clear, to aid inspection) sealing paint, that is as tough as old boots, I'd love to hear of
them! I've seen some generic stonechip paint in Halfrauds, but it is black.
Cheers
Andy
having used pop rivets a lot at work I have found that with a bit of vibration the mandrel pop's out as it is not secured, plus the rivet it self
can sometime's work loose, especially if it is not set right. The general repair method within the sea harrier community is to slap on a spot of
araldite over the rivet, bit of a bodge, but does work. Another method is to set the pop rivet with a small coating of araldite. This help's hold
in the mandrel plus helps to hold the rivet if, god forbid, you ever have to drill the bugger out again.
another snag is when you come to paint is the paint falling out of the hole left by the mandrel. A bit of aluminium paste works wonders when shoved in
the hole, prior to painting.
Chris
better still use blind stainless rivets.more expensive but stronger and wont let and water through because there blanked off hence blind. any way why
would you want to be out in the rain in an open topped sports car for.
jerry
Why would I want to be out in an open top car in the rain? See my above post! I'm not normal! See, I'm building a car to drive it. Not
to look at it wrapped up in the garage away from wetness, and the elements! Hence I want to make it last!
As for stainless rivets, then these perhaps would seal better, but they don't get over the dissimilar metal corrosion thing really. That's
why I went with Ally rivets,
I've had a look at a few products, and none of them strike me as being anygood! If anyone has a link to a decent sealant, or a product name, it
would be appreciated!
Cheers
Andy
If you want to seal just the rivets, place masking tape 1/2" either side of the rivets, brush tiger seal (PU, sticks to anything, tough as old
boots) in the gap. Wait 30 mins and remove the masking tape, you will get a neat 1" line of sealer covering your rivets, I used the same
technique for sealing my panels
Rescued attachment Masking sealer.jpg
That's a pretty nifty idea. I've got a fair few rolls of masking tape waiting for a good use!
I've been wondering about this acid etch primer for aluminium. I guess it's not really needed for polyurethane sealant though?!
Cheers
Andy
Roughen up the ally first, no etch required
I used this
http://www.nfauto.co.uk/wunderseal.htm
Seems ok and goes on reasonably easily
HTH Mark
Yeah, I've been looking at that wunderseal stuff. It look slike it might be the stuff to go for, not too expensive, and looks brushable.
What sort of finish did you get? Was it all thick and lumpy, or fairly smooth? Also, is the coverage about right compared to what the website says?
(1m.sq. per kg)?
cheers
Andy
The finish wasn't great but it brushes on easily it does dry very fast which is why its hard to get a good finish. I figured that the finish on
the underside wasn't all that critical.......
The coverage at 1 sq m per tin is about right.
Cheers
Mark
Brilliant, cheers for that Mark, and thanks for the help to everyone! I'm not too bothered about the quality of the finish, afterall it is the
part of the car that won't get seen too often! I wonder if there are any thinner, easier to brush versions of wunderseal?
I'll have to put an order in for a few tubs of wunderseal now! Where's my credit card.....
Cheers
Andy