Rivet Removal

[o1marc]

I've got at least 200 rivets to remove from the back of the bus. Does the air chisel method work well on solid buck rivets?

[brokedown]

It does work, but they're substantially tougher than the ones inside. Honestly the ones I removed were a pain in the ass and I changed my build plan rather than have to do more of them.

[PNW_Steve]

The bucked rivets on mine are a real pain.

I have not been successful using just an air chisel. I made a lot of noise but not much progress.

I wound up grinding the head down as far as I can and then drilling the body out.

The few exterior blind rivets were pretty easy to drill out. Just the bucked rivets have been tough.

I hate rivets......

[Tango]

Hot bucked rivets are tough little buggers. Had good results using a thin kerf cutting disk plus a chisel. Start at the center of the head and cut straight down while working out side to side just enough to get down to the shank at the level of the sheetmetal. Then one good whack with a sharp, hardened chisel will usually pop the rest of the head off without wrecking the sheetmetal around it. Time consuming but it worked for me on my old BB.