Sheared rivets on door frame, replace or seal over?

[EllaAir]

Hi friends!!

Would love some advice. I have a leaky door and when I went to reseal the top I found that the rivets around the top of the frame were sheared off.

Here is a video:

http://youtu.be/WEP3sDEL_co

What do you think? Do I have to re-Rivet the frame or can I seal over and rely on the screws that hold the gutter on to keep everything from moving too much?

Also, if I do have to re-rivet, can I get away with pop-rivets since they will be sealed over?

Thanks everyone!


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[tjdonahoe]

My opinion would say to install new rivets, they make blind rivetes for this,

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by EllaAir

Hi friends!!

Would love some advice. I have a leaky door and when I went to reseal the top I found that the rivets around the top of the frame were sheared off.

Here is a video:

http://youtu.be/WEP3sDEL_co

What do you think? Do I have to re-Rivet the frame or can I seal over and rely on the screws that hold the gutter on to keep everything from moving too much?

Also, if I do have to re-rivet, can I get away with pop-rivets since they will be sealed over?

Thanks everyone!


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

I am afraid you may have a more pressing issue. It appears that you have a hairline crack on the top right, which is a sign of front end shell/frame separation. If you would remove the bottom beltline in the front just above your banana wraps, I would bet that you will find a lot more of those sheared rivets.
You need to install or have someone else install 1 or two plates in the front of your trailer. Others may know more about the details of this urgent repair.

[EllaAir]

Thank you for the help all!

The front end separation issues seems to be something that needs to be remedied or my trailer will rattle itself apart going down the road . good thing I was already planning on stripping out the interior.

Looks like I will be reaching out to Colin for some professional advice:

Originally Posted by Colin H

Hi Dave,
I have done this repair numerous times on 34'ers, some 32's & 31's. The longer trailers have huge rear overhangs, putting a lot of stress on the front area when attached to the tow vehicle. This is a design flaw in my opinion, however Airstream decided to omit the front hold down plate on all of their production after the very early 80's. This plate is welded to the front crossmember & extends up between the C channel & the inside of the exterior skin. It is "buck" riveted to the front skin with a double or triple horizontal row of rivets. The floor is repaired at the same time along with the C channel that extends around the floor of the front end cap. Another tell tale symptom is a 4" diagonal crack coming from the upper RH corner of the main entrance door frame. This should be patched after the front end repairs are completed. This front end problem is very common, however many like to ignore it until it becomes almost catastrophic. It is not really noticeable unless you look for it, or it becomes really bad. I've seen the beginnings of this issue on trailers that were only several years old……………very sad really. This virtually never happens on 70's & earlier trailers that have this "hold down" plate installed during production, except if the floor is really rotted out & the trailer has had a tough life.
Colin

From this thread:
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/...on-118134.html


Peter, thank you very much for that insight!

-Will (Ella's Proud Owner).