I Guess I am Ready to Drop the Shell Back On

[Aktundra]

I am restoring a 1963 Bambi.

At long last, after almost a year ! I am ready to mate the shell back to the frame/floor/belly wrap assembly. Unfortunately after so long, I have lost the research I did on the exterior shell buck rivets and the adhesive selant.

My local distributor says Trempro 636 has been discontinued, and replaced by Trempro 635 (only difference is that it is quick drying). Is that the reccomended adhesive/selant to use?

It looks like the original exterior rivets were 1/8th with an extra large head. Seems that there was a standard rivet that was almost an exact replacement, was it 5/32 ?

When I went in to buy my practice rivets, they asked if I wanted the soft rivets or "structural" rivets. What is the proper alloy for reattaching the shell to the "U" channel and belly wrap?

Know I could tease this info out of the archives again, but as you can tell, I work slow AND I'm lazy !!

[rumrunner]

Slow and lazy, my kinda guy. Doesnt make me look so bad. Actually I am at the same point in a few days too. the info on the rivets is this- MS20470AD5-X where X is the rivet length in 1/16" increments. As a general rule -4 will handle two layer thicknesses, -5 three layers, -6 four layers. You want about 1.5 times the diameter of the shank poking through for proper deformation. You can get an inexpensive little guage when you buy your rivets to make this a lot easier to judge. Get your rivets from Genuine aircraft hardware co. as these seem to be the best match available for the originals. Use the AD structural strength rivets unless you have a slightly oversize hole-then the dead soft rivets may expand and seal a little better. Also make sure your rivet set is sized properly or you will deform the heads and have to drill out and do it again Lastly- practice, practice, practice on some scrap to get a feel for the process.
Any other rivet info you need- the resident expert is Aerowood. search his threads for everything you will ever need to know. have fun and remember, PICTURES
tim

[Aktundra]

thanks for the rivet spec's. Already did a little practicing with the soft rivets, guess I need to try the harder ones next.

What do you plan to use for the selant/adhesive?

[rumrunner]

I have the Trempro 635 from VTS but you will get many different opinions with a quick search on this topic. Sikaflex and a few others have their admirers.
tim

[josrut]

Originally Posted by rumrunner

Slow and lazy, my kinda guy. Doesnt make me look so bad. Actually I am at the same point in a few days too. the info on the rivets is this- MS20470AD5-X where X is the rivet length in 1/16" increments. As a general rule -4 will handle two layer thicknesses, -5 three layers, -6 four layers. You want about 1.5 times the diameter of the shank poking through for proper deformation. You can get an inexpensive little guage when you buy your rivets to make this a lot easier to judge. Get your rivets from Genuine aircraft hardware co. as these seem to be the best match available for the originals. Use the AD structural strength rivets unless you have a slightly oversize hole-then the dead soft rivets may expand and seal a little better. Also make sure your rivet set is sized properly or you will deform the heads and have to drill out and do it again Lastly- practice, practice, practice on some scrap to get a feel for the process.
Any other rivet info you need- the resident expert is Aerowood. search his threads for everything you will ever need to know. have fun and remember, PICTURES
tim

Xxxx