Riveting deck back on

[MercMark]

I did a search for rivtes, rivet, reattach, rivet deck... I found a few interesting posts but none specific enough.<br /><br />You'll see my project in my signature.<br /><br />The deck has been removed before. There are a lot of rivet holes. I expect that what was done, the first time the deck went back on, they drilled the rivets in between the old holes. <br /><br />I'd like to reuse the holes. Anyone have any advice?<br /><br />The previous attachment was a rivet through the metal of the rub rail and through both flanges (deck/hull). It held the rub rail on, then the rivets are hidden by the rubber strip.<br /><br />My father's concern is that the old holes won't be strong enough or tight enough to "catch" the rivet and make it pop and it will just pull through. He suggested epoxying a metal strip around the hull flange. I don't really want to buy even more material again. The metal strip was suggested after I put up resistance to trying to epoxy a strip of plywood around the flange to screw into, for fear it would deform the hull, since you can't put it all in at once unless you own 250 clamps.

 

[MercMark]

Re: Riveting deck back on

http://www.emhart.com/products/pop/lsh.htm <br /><br />these? I think I used a 8.5mm drill taking out the rivets and these are available to 12mm

 

[dolluper]

Re: Riveting deck back on

Largen the holes and use bigger rivets or make a mixture of resin and microballoons in a can 3/4 of can of resin and as much of the microballoons as you can sqeeze in to fill the can,, later catalyze when you fill in all the holes it makes a nice paste like filler ,or glass the two sections together,wood strips on the outside and ropes around deck and hull in about 4 spots tighten the ropes up it will hold it together then glass it together won't come apart till you cut it apart

 

[MercMark]

Re: Riveting deck back on

I used epoxy everywhere else.<br /><br />I think I'd like to rivet it. I don't expect to take it apart again, but I was planning on usig some of the 3m marine sealant and rivets.<br /><br />Whoever took it apart last used regular old clear silicone applied from the inside at some point. It gave me faith in "Runabout Renovation"'s suggestion of just use marine sealant and don't bother witht he fasteners. I spent about 1/2 hour inside under the deck in a tiny hot space hacking away at silicone even after drilling all the rivets and driving a blade all the way around in the seam between the flanges.

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: Riveting deck back on

If you can get to the back of where the rivets go, I would use backing washers rather than repair the holes. You can get packages wherever they sell pop-rivets. I think it would work better against fiberglass anyway.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Riveting deck back on

I second the backing washer technique. It will be faster and less fuss. Use the 5200, rivets, and backing washers and that thing will never come apart again, ever.

 

[MercMark]

Re: Riveting deck back on

Do the load spreading rivets not eliminate the need for backing washers?

 

[MercMark]

Re: Riveting deck back on

It turns out load spreading rivets are specialty items even for the local fastener specialty stores. Order only. I'll have to find another way... maybe the backing washers like stated above; and I'll have to stop leaving ordering materials so late.

 

[MercMark]

Re: Riveting deck back on

Ok, so finding rivets isn't as easy as I thought. Funny thing is, the most trouble I've had with this project is buying material.<br /><br />So, the flanges of the hull and deck on my boat have been separated before and have lots of holes in them. I don't want to drill even more, so I'm left trying to find rivets large enough to fit.<br /><br />The holes are 0.2" to 0.225". The next rivet size larger is .25". As it turns out a standard rivet gun won't take rivets larger than 3/16". Some places rent the large rivet gun, which looks like a bolt cutter, but nowhere around here. The size of the larger rivet gun makes me think that it would just pull through the fibreglass anyhow.<br /><br />So I'm left trying to figure out how to use a 3/16" rivet. Since it's slightly smaller than the holes I'm going to have to use a backing washer. Well, the rivets come in stainless steel, but no backing washers in that size in stainless steel. Plus I don't know if my trim rail is aluminum or stainless. It's pretty light so I'm thinking it's aluminum. Aluminum + stainless steel = glavanic action? You can get aluminum rivets but the anvil in the rivet is plain steel and will rust.<br /><br />I thought this was going to be simple. I bought stainless steel rivets and I'm going to try and find stainless steel backing washers.

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: Riveting deck back on

Around here we get aluminium rivets with aluminium anvils and aluminium backing washers. They can be a bit of a pain with a crummy rivet gun since the anvil is soft, but they're exactly what you want for marine use. The anvil is bigger in diameter than the steel ones so it won't break too early. Most rivet guns have dies to accept the larger anvil.<br /><br />Dimentions of the one I have in my hand:<br />Diam: 3/16"<br />Head diam: 3/8<br />Anvil diam: .115"<br /><br />These come from the local Canadian Tire.