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Dan Clayton · 11-12-2006, 07:38 PM

Well I have got all 900 or so olympics rivets installed and my new outside skin is all installed . Now I have sealed the outside of the head with vulkem, but I want to seal the back side of the rivets, since I have all the interior walls out. It looks like the factory used tar sealer, or under coating. I had planned on using automotive grade under coating, but does someone have a better idea or product. I really don't want any leaks down the road.

CaddyGrn · 11-12-2006, 11:24 PM

Hi!

My husband used vulkem and alcoa sealing the rivets. I am posting a link to his thread about what he did... you might need to scroll down a bit.

http://www.airforums.com/forum...-17925-16.html

Are you asking about the rivets you put on your outside skin? Did you use olympic rivets rather than bucked rivets? We bucked all the rivets on the outside skin of our trailer. Used olympic on the inside skins where we couldn't get to the back of the rivet.

I would seal everything as well as you can with something that will be a bit flexible as well as a really good seal. It will be interesting to see what others have done!

Mrs. NorCal Bambi (traveling in S Tardis)

robandzoe · 11-13-2006, 04:36 AM

I have to ask the same.. did you use Olympics on all the outside skin? The were originally solid bucked rivets - structural. Olympics are not as strong. I hope you meant for the inside or just a small outside patch.

Rob

wahoonc · 11-13-2006, 05:00 AM

Did you "dip" the rivets in Vulkem before installing them? If so that is probably all the sealing you need. Also did you completely refasten the exterior with them? They don't have the pullout/structural rating that a bucked rivet has. If you sealed them from the outside I would thing adding anything to the inside would be needed...unless you really want to, in which case I would use some more vulkem or possibly a butyl based Siklastic caulk. Butyl never really dries out, and will last forever if not exposed to UV.

Aaron

Dan Clayton · 11-13-2006, 08:58 PM

The outside is were I installed the olympic rivets. I have spoke with allot of folks, professional restores, such as Andy from Inland RV and other folks and they all agreed that olympic rivets were fine too use. I have bucking rivets in such areas as the door. With all the panels sealed with vulkum and twice as many rivets as what the factory used, I would never think there would be a issue of anything comming loose.My choice to go with the olympic rivets was two fold. First I was a one man operation, it was way to difficault to get another person lined up on my time schudule. I can only get a few hours here and there to be able too work on it. The second was I ran a very small risk of damaging the panel with the olympic rivet compared to using a numatic gun and bucking bar and with a 4x12 panel of 2024 T3 running $175.00 sheet you don't want to make any mistakes. I did dip the body of the rivet with the vulkum which made a nice little donut that could be peeled off when dry. I have not had but one or two leaks in all of the rivets that I installed, and then I just replaced those and it stopped the leak. But I know as time goes on that they may move a small amount and thats were I was looking for a good sealer to use on the inside to help reduce the chances of any leaking issues.