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Permalink Reply by Rick George on March 1, 2014 at 6:49pm

I ground a nail punch to fit the hole in the rivet and punch out the shank, then drill out the aluminum rivet. I have three different diameter nail punches that I use. 

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Permalink Reply by Brian Baker on March 1, 2014 at 9:27pm

An automatic center punch worked well for me.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Sanders on March 1, 2014 at 9:30pm

As someone who has had to fix a lot of rivets, I have highly recommend using a punch to hammer out the centre and then use the same size drill bit to remove the head. After that punch out the rest of the rivet.

More recently I've gotten pretty good at drilling the centre out with a very small bit when it has been impossible to get the punch near (or the punch simply isn't working).

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on March 1, 2014 at 10:56pm

There were several different suggestions for how to get the pulling shank out of the rivet body, but that is the important step. Drive that pulling shank out of the rivet body. If you do not, when you drill the bit will wander off center when it hits the steel shank down inside the center hole of the aluminum rivet body and ovalize the hole in your skin and rib. Once the steel shank is out of that center hole of the rivet body you can drill the head off the rivet (the empty pulling shank hole serves as a nice drilling guide) then push the rivet body through to the inside with a punch. You will find you do not actually need to drill out the rivet body, just drill off the head. Then the body can get pushed inside and/or removed after the outer skin/sheet is removed. Sometimes the rivet body will not want to pop out of the interior sheet of metal but you can remove it with pliers after the skin is taken off.

I would suggest making up some samples of riveted together scrap sheets of aluminum the same thicknesses as the riveted sheets you need to take the rivets out of, then practice on them a few times before taking a punch and drill to your airplane.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Engel on March 2, 2014 at 7:18pm

A good set of number size drill bits (one or two sizes bigger) works well, A automatic center punch to get rid of the pull shank, and pliers or small sharp side cutters works well for me     Good luck!.

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Permalink Reply by Perry Delano on March 3, 2014 at 11:43am

I have just used the same size drill bit to carefully drill the head off , then if necessary grab the shop head with a pair of needle nose pliers and pull it off. Have not used a center punch. that said a couple holes skated away on me, which in hind sight might have been the shank protruding up and contacting the drill bit. 

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Permalink Reply by Randy Boykin on March 3, 2014 at 9:02pm

I have an old ice pick I use to punch out the center shank, it has a wood handle, works very well. If the rivet stays in the piece I have found that a pair of side dikes slid under the aluminum and then squeeze pops the remaining rivet out better than pulling on it with a pair of needle nose pliers.

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