Rivet replacement

[Otters]

Originally Posted by stevebaz

Iget a piece of 1/4" metal tubing from the hardware or auto parts and make a tape handle for it. make it a foot long or so. then when the outside person pushes the rivet in from the outside the inside person pushes all the stuff from the inside towords the outside with the rivet inside the tube tool. this allows everything to pull up nice and tight.

Steve,
I can't quite figure out the purpose of the foot long tubing and how it works. Just can't visualize it. Can you explain a little more about how it helps?
Thanks, Linda

[stevebaz]

When the rivet sticks through the shell it has to go through all the stuff inside whether its cabinet flanges or curtain rod hooks or what ever you want to attach to the walls. you want to push this material up against the wall so you have to hold the piece in place and hold a back-up washer or acorn nut. this is hard on the hands pushing this up in place in ackward places while holding the pieces too. if you put the pieces in place then take the tube tool and place it over everything with the rivet inside the tube it makes it easy to hold everything in place and push the tool out against the shell right around the rivet where it counts. the rivet then expands inside the tool. this makes a nice tight snug assembly rather than trust the rivet to expand and pull everything up tight. it is much easier on the person pushing the assembly in place and the person poping the rivet.
The tube inside is bigger the the rivet swells up to, so you just move it to the next spot.

[Otters]

Got it Steve thanks. That's a great suggestion.

[Steve and Rosemary]

You make it sound so easy! Luckily I have a few months to build up courage. Heck, I'm not sure I even know what a rivet looks like! Thanks everyone for the tips.

[Ricky 4]

I bought the whole set of rivet caps from Scamp.
For around $10 I got enough caps for the whole trailer and some caps on the trailer are smaller than others -so buying the set from Scamp means you get all the right sizes.
They sent them quickly too.

[Steve and Rosemary]

Ricky, you're not the first person to suggest that I buy the caps and rivets from Scamp. As a matter of fact, I was going to ask about the rivets -- Scamp sells 8 different sizes but I don't know if I need them all. Some folks have said all I'll need is a 1/8" drill bit to drill the old ones out so I'm assuming the 8 different sizes available are for length. Is this correct? Is there any sure fired way to know what size a rivet is based on it's location on the trailer or is it just sort of a guessing game? Try this length, try another length...?

[Francesca Knowles]

The 1/8 drill bit is sufficient for whacking off the head of most rivets, which is how they're removed. If properly done, the rest of the rivet just slides out and leaves behind a hole of the originally appropriate diameter....and evidently Scamp used a variety in that department. But that's the only trailer-wide common use of the 1/8 bit!

Scamp's rivet page indicates that they're differentiated not just by length but by shaft diameter/size. The diameter of the rivet's hole combined with the depth of the surface it has to go through determines the size of the rivet to be used.

Hole size/rivet diameter are important mostly for load bearing- the bigger the rivet the heavier the load.

Length is important since there are limits within which the rivet will effectively operate, and one that's too long will NOT tighten up properly.

Since Scamp's webpage offers rivets in eight sizes, it's fair to assume that's how many you'll encounter on your trailer. You might cut down on necessity for many different shaft diameters by committing to replacement of all with the biggest diameter (heaviest load-bearing), provided that diameter is available in the lengths you need.

It's a simple enough matter to drill smaller holes out to the bigger diameter...

This of course assumes that the cosmetic caps are of a uniform size, and not conspicuously different for different places.

Note:
Though length is pretty much cast in stone, you can fudge it a bit with a longer rivet by use of aluminum washers on the blind side. Not the best practice, but it works, as I can attest!

Francesca

[Ricky 4]

All our rivets were fine-just missing most of the caps.
Used an adhesive that someone recommendedon this site.
Just put new caps on-made the trailer look so much better.
Sitting here looking out the window-snow-so am now planning and waiting for the right time to pull Tante Marie out of hibernation!
Good luck with the rivets.
Mrs.C

[FTTRV]

Clean silicone with mineral spirits. You can order new buttons from Scamp.
Chuck

[Thinh]

Here is what I do for replacing old rivets without scratching its' surrounding: 1/ Choose a drill bit which is equal or smaller than rivets themselves, NOT BIGGER. 2/ Mark the center with a punch 3/ Drill into the center of rivet until it's lossened. In case it is spinning, use a vise-grip to hold it from behind 3/ After take it out, keep the old head of that rivet as a washer for the new one. 4/ Before putting the new one in with re-used "washer", make sure dip it into "roof seal" I forgot the name, not sillicon though. 5/ Touch up after all. Hopefully it woud help...Thanks for reading...

[Perry J]

Originally Posted by FTTRV

Clean silicone with mineral spirits. You can order new buttons from Scamp.
Chuck

You can also order enough caps and bases from Pro-Dec.com for the about the price of ONLY the shipping from Scamp.
It cuts the price almost in half.

Scamp claims the Post Office won't allow them to ship their small, light weight products by mail so they have to use UPS.

Pro-Dec uses the mail and I received my order in 5 days.

John

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by Thinh

After take it out, keep the old head of that rivet as a washer for the new one. 4/ Before putting the new one in with re-used "washer", make sure dip it into "roof seal" I forgot the name, not sillicon though. 5/ Touch up after all. Hopefully it woud help...Thanks for reading...

I presume the old head being reused as a "washer" is put on the backside of the rivet after insertion into the hole, just like a stock backwasher...

My understanding is that backwashers are usually only used where there are concerns about either holesize or the fragility of the material being fastened to.

Francesca

[Carol H]

No washers on any the through hull rivets on my Scamp other than the awning which uses big bolts. All the rivets have are the plastic cap holders and those holding up the inside cabinets have the acorn nuts on the inside - no washers.

[Thinh]

Hi, there. The aluminum rivet doesn't need washer. That is just the way I DO because i usually don't want to throw anything that is use-able. Just my style..