"riveted" look?

[eamarquardt]

how many times will you miss and whack the skin with your BFH???

Once would be more than enough for me.

By the way, I saw Carl La Fong yesterday. He was carrying what appeared to be a bowling ball (but I could be mistaken) and was trying to hide from an "annuity policy" salesman.

Cheers,

Gus

[doug hodder]

I'm planning on a riveted look for my next build. However, it will all be done with wood and epoxy with auto paint on it, not through an aluminum skin. My plan is to get some short huck rivets with like a 1/4" head, drill the wood, mop some thickened epoxy in the hole and set the rivets. Prime and paint over it all. It's strictly for appearance purposes. Done correctly, I don't see an issue with it. Trying to fake it on aluminum would be tougher. While not a smooth topped item, you could maybe do it with a load of short round topped screws, with a square drive, and a shot of 3M 5200 under the head. It would drill into the wood side to hold and the 5200 would seal it. Just clean up around them really well from the squish-out on the 5200. Just an idea. Doug

[Corwin C]

Back in my modeling days, i used to simulate rivets with white school glue and a toothpick. After paint they were very convincing. I would even mark the tops with an exacto knife to simulate slotted and phillips screws, zeus fasteners, etc. These are obviously larger, but why couldn't you simply cut the nail portion off the upholstery nail and stick it on with an appropriate adhesive. No holes, no leaks, same great look ... and as a bonus mistakes would be fixable.

[Big Dave]

You might want to check the materials that the upholstery nails are made out of, I doubt they even envisioned them be used outdoors. Personally, I'd use real live trailer screws:
http://hickorytrailerparts.com/catalog/ ... ucts_id=99

I've removed and reinstalled thousands of these and I've never seen a problem with them. We pull them before we wrap a cargo trailer with graphics, it makes life much easier.

[007BigBig]

Google "upholstery nails" in image and this one of the pics you will get........

Genius! I just ordered a ton of rivets for a different project, but this is a much better solution. I too am just going for a look - not necessarily mechanical function.

Eric

[emiller]

I like the riveted look also.

[prohandyman]

Here is my "riveted" idea...Aluminum twist nails, as was used on the early campers to hold on the trim. they measure right at 1", so I will cut them down, pre-drill the holes, and seal each hole as I tap them in. Being twist nails I don't believe they will back out. I stated this project on the Nose art tear, which seems to keep getting put on the back burner!

[bdosborn]

Thomas Dolby likes the riveted look too:



Time Capsule

Looks like a Raindrop with stuff all over it to me.

Bruce

[Big Dave]

That's really ironic since I'm building a raindrop and have my shop's XM on the 80's channel 99% of the time.

[RandyG]

I work structural maintenance on aircraft for a living. Riviting is not that hard at all. If you do a blind fastener, I would go with Cherry Max. A .032 sheet of alum. and 1/8th wood might be about a -5 grip length. You would just need to have a cherry max gun. They come in electric, pneumatic or hand pump. If you go with hand pump, you may want to have a cherry poppin' party , 20 or more would kill your hands.

[Wobbly Wheels]

An automatic center punch with the point ground down will leave a dimple without piercing the skin. Until you look at it up close, it passes for rivets. When you're passing it on the road or it's a couple stalls away, you'd never know.

[jeff0520]

Peterbilt trucks have a rivited skin look. It's been a while since I had a Pete, but I recall the owners manual said it was assembled using Huck Bolts. Here's a link http://huckfastening.com/

[Rock]

There's always honest to goodness solid rivets.



Of course you need access to the back of the assembly to properly install them. When done right they are waterproof (aluminum boat hulls have been done this way for decades.)

I chose flat aluminum brass, but many materials are available and if you are looking for the old school iron construction look you can get pan head as well. I got mine from http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-rivets/=hlplfc

There's more information on home built airplane forums.

Eric

[emiller]

Rivets look cool.

[ssrjim]

Rivets look cool.

Now tell them how much work it is and how expensive it is.