On Mon, 19 May 1997, Mark Iansiti wrote:
> My 74 Spitfire has some rust on the driver side floor pan (OK, so the
> floor's gone), and I want to replace the road sign currently pressed into
> service with the panel I bought from VB. Once I cut the bad metal away,
> will it suffice to pop rivet the new piece in place (I'm not talking
> concourse[sp?], here) as far as body integrity goes, will it be safe? I do
> not have a welder, so I'm hoping the answer is - just do it.
Since you asked, NO! Pop riveting is for when you temporarily place a
road sign (or sheet cut from mom's old Maytag, etc.) to keep your feet
from playing Fred Flintstone. If you've gone to the trouble of buying a
proper repro floor pan, and you can't weld it yourself, strip out the
interior, get the car to a welder or a bodyshop and let them do it.
Despite the "backbone" chassis frame, Spitfires are really quite
dependent upon floors, sills, etc. to provide some rigidity to the
structure. I'm pretty sure pop rivets won't improve upon that. :-)
--Andy
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