[Healeys] Trunk/boot lip rivets

[Andy Thorp]

Thanks to everyone who replied with pics and ideas for this job.

I ended up modifying a G clamp similar to one somebody sent pics of and it worked very well. It was a bit clumsy to use but once I got the hang of getting the metal clamped up fully first it was relatively straightforward. The important features are having about 1 1/4" narrow rod that goes up inside the shroud lip and the same coming down from the top and fixed so it can't rotate. The RHS was a bit overkill in hindsight.

The rivets I had were 1/4" long A125F0250A from rivetsonline.com and if I were to do the job again I'd probably go with 3/8" long given that some of the rivet gets squashed into the [now] slightly oversize holes. The amount of force required to set the rivets is no more than is required to tighten up a G clamp firmly on a piece of metal so it isn't really much effort once the tool is made.

Next job, painting.

Cheers,
Andy.

[I sent this with some zipped pics attached but it may have been too big, I can send individually if anyone would like them]

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On Thu, 28/1/16, Al Fuller <al at bighealey.org> wrote:

Andy:  Most likely you have a chapter of
the EAA near you, and the members are almost all building
airplanes.  As the most popular model out there right now
is aluminum and needs lots of rivets, they may have what you
need and be willing to help!  Try http://www.eaa.org/eaa to
find a local chapter…  Al Fulleral at bighealey dot
org'65 BJ-8'85 Rx-7
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