Strange rivets - replace or leave?

[GoToasterGo]

I've got a large number of these rivets in a few areas of shell. Also on the outside of the shell the head has a small ring on it.

1. Does anyone know what kind of rivets these are?
2. Should I replace while I the chance to do so?

Here are the strange rivets


This is the area they are mostly found in. It's hard to tell but there are what I consider standard buck/solid rivets around the rib near the top side of end cap, these are also what most of the shell is put together with. The ones that I am questioning are the three pronged rivets.


Here is a zoomed in shot of the normal buck/solid rivets.

[sheriff1]

I think those are Olympic rivets

[Thiss]

Olympic rivets used for a blind repair and then shaved to look like the buck rivets. Must be the evidence of a repair.

[GoToasterGo]

Darn. That's what I was afraid of. Thanks for the input .

I'm guessing these should be replaced with solid rivets then?

[Thiss]

Sorry, I can not speak to their capability in comparison to buck rivets. Someone with more knowledge will surely help.

[Monza]

Yes replace with buck rivets, more strength and you have easy access.

[Belegedhel]

Are they leaking? If not, I would goop them up with sealant from the inside and leave them be. As they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Yes, there are people who would argue that bucked rivets are better than Olympics, but apparently the Olympics are good enough, or they would have sheared or leaked by now.

There is no guarantee that your newly installed bucked rivets won't leak--it happens.

Good luck!

[perryg114]

They are fine as long as they don't leak. An Airstream is not stressed like an airplane. Won't hurt to caulk them with urethane caulk on the inside. While you have the skins off sit out there in the rain and find leaks and fix them.

Perry

[dbj216]

Hi toaster: The Olympic "trifold" rivets are designed for light duty assembly jobs. They do not have near the strength of a solid rivet, bucked tight (but not too tight). I use Olympic rivets for "decorative" areas where a regular Pop rivet would look bad, such as the Airstream nameplate on the front of my Trade Wind

Since you now have easy access to the backside of these riveted areas, I would buy a pneumatic riveter and a bucking bar, and then get that special girl friend of yours to help you buck a bunch of rivets. Ear protection required. You can replace them just a few at a time so you don't disturb the orientation of the exterior skins.

My son's 69 has the exterior skin on the street side replaced sometime in it's 48 years. It is just like yours, all olympic rivets. Cheap repair job.

You can google rivets, visit a big distributor's website, and learn about the relative strength of the many different types of blind rivets. Trifolds have their place, but not in a aircraft type stressed "fuselage" like an Airstream shell.

As always, opinions on Airstream Forums are absolutely FREE.

David

[GoToasterGo]

Thanks for the input everyone.

David, I've got to agree with you on this one. I already need to do a bunch of buck riveting to get the c channels back on the shell properly so what's a couple hundred more.

I'm a large supporter of doing things right, especially something like this that is in a location I'll hopefully never see again.

[perryg114]

You got it that far apart then go for it. Aerowood on here is an expert riveter.

Perry

[Dingo Girl]

If it's the Olympic rivet head that has the ring around it that ring is made of urethane. It's to give the rivet a good seal. The urethane will however dry out and shrink then leak.
Like others have said Olympics are not for structure repair only patches etc...
Bucking in rivets is not hard to learn & is actually kind of fun.

[dbj216]

Dingo Girl will become our "Rosie the Riveter" Women built more US aircraft during the war years than anyone else. There is a touch to it. Airstream does quite a bit of training before they turn an employee loose with a riveter. You're going to hold the bucking bar first.

It is fun to see the rivet "mushroom" tight.

There is money to be made to the outfit that designs, tools, and sells a "shaveable" blind aluminum rivet. All you gotta do is tool the mandrel so it breaks about 3 mm above the rivet head. Do it for the common sizes.

David

[Aerowood]

Post a picture of the rivets with ring around it. CherryMax rivets have a locking ring to secure the stem in the rivet body. If they are Cherrymax the removal procedure is quit different then that of the "Olympic Rivets"

[GoToasterGo]

Here are pictures from both ends of the rivet.

[Aerowood]

Confirmed they are Olympic, the ring you are seeing is from the shaver cutter that is setup to cut to deep.

[GoToasterGo]

Originally Posted by Aerowood

Confirmed they are Olympic, the ring you are seeing is from the shaver cutter that is setup to cut to deep.

Thank you for the confirmation it's appreciated.

[GoToasterGo]

Originally Posted by Aerowood

Confirmed they are Olympic, the ring you are seeing is from the shaver cutter that is setup to cut to deep.

Aerowood, do you have a good technique for removing these?

I've removed many pop and solid rivets with minimal effort but these Olympic rivets are kind of a pain.

[GoToasterGo]

Aerowood, do you have a good technique for removing these?

I've removed many pop and solid rivets with minimal effort but these Olympic rivets are kind of a pain.

[Aerowood]

The easiest way to remove is to drive the center mandrel out of the rivet with a small punch, after mandrel is removed drill out the remainder with a #21 drill bit. If the skin while driving out the stem drill a big hole in the end of a 2X4 (big enough to clear the expanded legs) and use it for a backer.