Rusty Awning Rivets

[SSquared]

I have a 2013 Flying Cloud that came from the factory with only the main awning. In 2014 I had an independent shop install the rear and street side awnings.

I was just cleaning the roof and I noticed that about half of my street side awning rivets are rusty. There seem to be three kinds of rivets: Aluminum olympic rivets (about every five rivets) and a mixture of aluminum and steel
(now rusty steel) standard pop rivets. There is no sealant on the rivets.

My curb side awning has sealant on each fastener.

How bad is it that some of these are rusting? Should they be covered with sealant? If so, should the rusty rivets be replaced first?

[FloydCoVa]

Good question. I have a 2015 23d and added rear and street side awnings in 2018...following.

[GMFL]

That “Independent Shop” did not install your awnings with the correct hardware. When I purchased my awnings from ZipDee they came with all the hardware needed to install.
Steel pop rivets should not have been used. They should be removed and replaced with Olympic rivets.
Here is the blog post of my install.
http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...national-2925/
http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...l-part-2-2926/
http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...l-part-3-2927/

[SSquared]

Originally Posted by GMFL

That “Independent Shop” did not install your awnings with the correct hardware. When I purchased my awnings from ZipDee they came with all the hardware needed to install.
Steel pop rivets should not have been used. They should be removed and replaced with Olympic rivets.
Here is the blog post of my install.
http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...national-2925/
http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...l-part-2-2926/
http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...l-part-3-2927/

GMFL,
Thanks for your reference to the other thread. It looks like my street side awning has more rivets than yours--maybe the installer used what was provided and then added more in the interest of overkill. (My factory-installed curb side awning has many fewer fasteners; I don't know what type they are because they are covered in big globs of sealant)

Did you add sealant over your rivets? Is there a risk of water leaking through the center hole of olympic or normal pop rivets?