Grille rivets

[John M.]

66, 67
At our chapter meet this weekend we judged two 67s and a 66 and the grilles in each were held to the brackets with screws on two cars and pop rivets on the third. As far as I could remeber pop rivets are not original to this piece, only the true peened aluminum rivets. True? There was some disagreement.
Thanks
John McRae 30025

[Gerard F.]

Re: Grille rivets

John,

My 67 (22049, AOS) has pop rivets original to the car:


Same on the other side. Grille has never been off the the car in my nearly 40 years with it.

[John M.]

Re: Grille rivets

Thanks Jerry,
I spent a lot of time using conventional rivets to reinstall a grille. Coulda used pop rivets!!!
John

[Gerard F.]

Re: Grille rivets

Actually John, the conventional rivets are probably more the norm for 66 and most 67's. My 67 is in the last few weeks of production, and I think that maybe there were shortages and they used whatever then had on hand to keep the production going.

There are other 67s out there with the pop rivets from the factory.

My June 29 car has a few other things at variance with the JG, especially in the fastenings. For instance, different rocker moulding screws, one side to the other. Also, no french locks on the S/B engine, with shoulder headed exhaust manifold bolts which obviate the the french locks.

[Glenn B.]

Re: Grille rivets

Pictures are worth 1,000 words - thanks.

I found your pics from a search a while back Jerry and used them as a guide to replace the incorrect nuts and bolts on my 67 with pop rivets.

[Wayne W.]

Re: Grille rivets

Actually John, the conventional rivets are probably more the norm for 66 and most 67's. My 67 is in the last few weeks of production, and I think that maybe there were shortages and they used whatever then had on hand to keep the production going.

There are other 67s out there with the pop rivets from the factory.

My June 29 car has a few other things at variance with the JG, especially in the fastenings. For instance, different rocker moulding screws, one side to the other. Also, no french locks on the S/B engine, with shoulder headed exhaust manifold bolts which obviate the the french locks.

I do not agree with that statement. All that I have ever seen, that could be substantiated have been the solid type, not pop rivets. Maybe there were some pop rivets used, I dont know, but to say that is is the "norm" for most 66 and 67s is just not true.

[Gerard F.]

Re: Grille rivets

Wayne,

I think we are saying the same thing. It is probably abnormal to see pop rivets on original grilles but they are out there. Like mine and others which have been noted.

The solid (conventional) rivets are probably more normal.

I think we have been through this before.

[Wayne W.]

Re: Grille rivets

Wayne,

I think we are saying the same thing. It is probably abnormal to see pop rivets on original grilles but they are out there. Like mine and others which have been noted.

The solid (conventional) rivets are probably more normal.

I think we have been through this before.

Yea, We have been through it before, and I am still not sold. I have never seen one with pop rivets that I believed was original. I have looked at about as many as anyone. I am not saying that it didnt happen. I dont think anyone could say that absolutely, but the solid rivet is smaller in diameter than the pop rivets that are commonly seen in that location. If this was done on the line, it would have required an extra operation to drill out the holes for that rivet. It just dont seem likely that they would deviate from the ordinary to pop a rivet every now and then.