Well, there doesn't seems to be a shortage of countersunk head aircraft
type aluminum rivets, but so far I haven't found a source for this type
of rivet in stainless steel. In fact, I can't even find countersunk
rivets in plain old steel.
Here's the situation: In order to repair some holes and rips in my
vinyl soft top, I had to remove it from the U-channels that attach it to
the windshield. The vinyl was attached to the channels with countersunk
aluminum rivets. No problem here. I have plenty of new rivets to
re-attach the vinyl.
While I had these channels free of the soft top I decided to de-rust
them and give them a coat of Imron. Before doing this I removed a small
chrome plated clamps from the outside ends of each of the two channels.
These clamps are used to secure the top to windshield when it is
erected. The clamps were attached with steel countersunk head rivets
similar to the aluminum type mentioned above. The old rivets were
pretty badly rusted so I would like to replace them with stainless, if
possible. Only problem is, I can't find any.
I checked the Airport Shoppe (aircraft supply store) at a nearby airport
but could only find aluminum rivets. The owner of the place claimed
there was no such thing as a stainless countersunk rivets, and in fact,
wasn't very sympathy or interested in my plight. I got no help there.
So, my last hope seemed to be the Aircraft Spruce and Speciality catalog
I ordered a while back. It arrived a couple of days ago, but, to my
disappointment, no countersunk head stainless steel rivets were listed.
AS&S does sell cherry rivets with countersunk heads but I don't think
these will do because the rivet heads will be very visible form the
outside once they are installed.
At this point I've pretty much given up on the idea of finding a supply
of ready made stainless steel rivets and decided that I'll have to make
my own. My plan is to use stainless steel machine screws. I'll cut
them to the proper length and grind the excess off the heads. But first
a couple of questions:
As far as I can tell, countersunk rivets have a head angle of 100
degrees:
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100 | ____|
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Is this standard or just for aircraft application? The new aluminum
rivets I have seem to fit in the old holes just fine.
What is this angle for commonly available countersunk machine screws?
AS&S list screws with 100 and 82 degree heads. I bought some SS
screws at a local hardware store but I don't know what angle they are.
Help and/or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Roland
cobra@cdc.hp.com
CSX2282
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