63 Rear Valence Panel

[John A.]

This is for all of you who have been there and done it!! In putting my 63 back together after having the frame replaced I realized that I should have replaced all of the metal plates that attach to the underbody with aluminum rivets before the body went back on. The case in point is attaching the eight small plates to the rear light panel for attachment of the rear valence panel. Each plate takes two aluminum rivets but now I can't get behind them with any kind of tool to attach the rivet. I can't get a rivetting tool in there either. I thought of looking for some aluminum bolts & nuts to do the job but this seems like a cop out. I would like to hold them on with something. What are my options at this point?

[Timothy B.]

Re: 63 Rear Valence Panel

John,

Go to the hardware store and buy some 3/16" pop rivets and some aluminum washers. Install the correct length rivet from the outside and place the washer on the inside and POP. Your back in business! Not NCRS correct but a nice job that's correctly done.

[John A.]

Re: 63 Rear Valence Panel

Thanks, Tim. I will give it a try....

[Carl S.]

Re: 63 Rear Valence Panel

I have found the best tool to install Rivets. It may work for you, it only requires 4 1/2 inch space. I have just used it to mount all brackets and fastners on my 63 body. I used a Craftsman BATTRY POWERED HAMMERHED AUTO-HAMMER THAT GIVES 3600 impacts per minute. I gives a nice dimpled finish. With the help of a friend we replaced all mounting brackets in a little over a hour. It worked somuch better than my air power tool. You can controll it, well worth the $100 it cost. The first thing I used it on was the valence panel.

[John A.]

Re: 63 Rear Valence Panel

Thanks for the tip Carl. I did buy an Ingersol Rand air hammer that worked for body plates I could get at. There isn't enough room to get the tool in the small space between the panel and the frame. Could I get the Craftsman tool in that space? I was going to try the method described by Tim above using an aluminum washer and rivet tool if I can figure out what he means. Give me a few more details about the size of the head on the Craftsman tool.

[Timothy B.]

Re: 63 Rear Valence Panel

John,

My method is simply a pop rivet. Very easy to install and the aluminum back up washer is there because the hole in the metal plate may be larger than the diameter of the rivet. I will try to post a pic later.

[Kevin H.]

Re: 63 Rear Valence Panel

I also realized after the car was back on the frame to install new plates ..we used the aluminum rivets supplied with the brackets and used a c-clamp to crush them little patience was needed but we got the results we wanted

bought the c -clamp in a set from craftsman 4 pc set 3 inch clamp

[Loren L.]

Pop Rivet Kit

You should also include in your pop rivet kit a soldering gun, some silver solder and a dremel/sandpaper for smoothing out the "head" of your new rivet.