Replacing Reproduction Muffler Hanger Hardware with Rivets


The 1962 Thunderbird reproduction muffler hangers come with 1/4"-20 x 1" bolts and nuts in place of the original rivets that were installed from the factory.

The original hangers were held together with rivets. I decided to research rivets and find out how to duplicate them.


A closer view of the rolled rivets. After much research I learned that these are called semi-tubluar rivets and are typically installed with a tool called a clincher.


Measurements were taken and after a lot of Google searching and dead ends, I found the only rivets that matched were 1/4" diameter x 3/4" length x 1/2" head in truss head style. These are available from Jay-cee sales at www.rivetsonline.com. They cost $9.10 for 100 plus about another $10 for shipping.


Here is the detail of the semi-tubular rivet. Notice the hollow end that is intended to be rolled over. The old drilled out rivet is shown at left for comparison.

 


The most confusing part of this project was finding the correct tool to rollover the end of the rivet. It was not apparent at first what tool I needed. What I did find was very expensive. The tools can excede well over $300. Here is a view of the end of the manual rivet "clincher" I obtained for what I thought was a rather large price of $38 including shipping from Zoro Tools made by Hanson Rivet. Oddly, it came packaged for Grainger, who sells them for $64.55 plus shipping.

 

Comparison of the old and new rivets.

Now that the parts are gathered, comes the easy part. Just remove the 1/4" hardware and push the rivets in. If they don't go through just run a 1/4" drill bit through the hole to clean the rubber up. Place the rivet heads on a hard surface (I put a thin aluminum sheet under them on the garage floor to protect the heads from scratching) and roll them over with the rivet tool and a hammer. About four good hits is all it takes to set them tightly.
 

That's all there is to it. Here are the heads and ends of the finished hangers. It looks much cleaner, more professional, and authentic than the 1/4" hardware. As you can see the steel is already starting to rust. I might take the rivets back out and zinc plate the steel to prevent this rust formation.
 
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