what is the best method to rivet ball joints ??

[Robert B.]

I am getting ready to rivet the upper and lower ball joints on a 63. Any experienced advice is helpful.

Heat them up ? use 12 ton press ? use a hammer ? Thanks

[Patrick B.]

Re: what is the best method to rivet ball joints ??

Simple riveting tools for an ordinary shop air hammer work well, and the rivets do not have to be heated.

[Steve L.]

Re: what is the best method to rivet ball joints ??

I had one of the Florida corvette vendors do mine. They do a lot of them. They have a fixture held in a vice that holds the head of the rivet in place.

They first heat up the rivet with a torch red hot, set it up in the fixture quickly, then use a rivet set tool and a hammer. They hammer it in a circular fashion to get a nice round head. Takes about a minute. The fixtures were all hand build and nothing fancy. No press involved at all.

If I had to do a few of them, I would spend 1 or 2 hrs making this fixture. It insures that the rivet doesn't back out of the hole while hammering. It also make set up quick since you want to get the rivet in place quickly while it is still hot.

[Mike E.]

Re: what is the best method to rivet ball joints ??

Tracy Crisler wrote a Restorer article a few years ago. I used his method and it work out well. It is discussed in the thread linked below. I believe St. Louis cold formed the rivets with a good sized C-Press.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...ighlight=rivet

Mike

[John H.]

Re: what is the best method to rivet ball joints ??

I believe St. Louis cold formed the rivets with a good sized C-Press.

St. Louis used bench fixtures with overhead-suspended and pedestal-mounted 2000-psi hydraulic rivet presses, similar to the dozens of rivet presses used next door on the Truck Frame Line.


Riveter800.JPG