Richie's Mk1 Restoration

[RichardT10829]

Lynn they will be put in hot, i was just interested to see what it would do to a cold rivet

[RichardT10829]

Well another few hours in the garage tonight with Jnr. managed to pull the glacis plate and offer up one repro fender.... i have used the original sand guards to form a datum when offering up the new fenders to drill them.. the original sand guards and the original fenders are in a bad way, bud salvageable so will get restored when the carrier is done and kept as spares.






Now to the glacis plate you will notice that the missing top section is being "Pieced" back in.. the question on most minds would be "why not make this from one new bit and weld it in ?" well i have off-cuts of original 5mm steel from the division plate, which i kept back to re introduce back onto the carrier all be it in a different place... i suppose a romantic notion that i want to retain as much original fabric that i can. when its done it will look like it never left the carrier. I suppose it could be argued that i should not have removed it from the remains of the division plate in the first place, hind sight is...yes your right but at the time i did the division plate i was less confident of offering the new steel up to the original stuff, it was easier for me to use the track guards as a datum and run fresh steel above that line.....



i still have some countersinking to do on the front but the bit snapped tonight so will need to get another this week.

[eddy8men]

keep it as original as you can

rick

[Stew Robertson]

When a rivet is put in hot it will shrink when it cools, but a rivet is a rivet
Just figure out the torque presure on a nut and bolt then figure out the torque pressure on a hammered rivet no comparrison. The bolt wins
there is a good chance when Ford manufactured the carrier the rivets where not put in one at a time there for eliminating time and man power

Now I am just stirring the pot

[RichardT10829]

the lower hull was built in two halves... the rear then the front was joined together the front and rear were then joined up (the seam is in line with the division plate).... they then put the top armour on... there are images of women with rivet guns finishing hulls off rivet by rivet......... ;-)

[ajmac]

Lets face it Rivets are so 19th century! Welding rules, british industry just wasn't forward thinking, the T16 showed the way and in the end the UC was welded too. From a restoration point of view rivets do offer an easier route, putting new armour on a welded carrier and having the welds look factory would be more difficult I imagine.

[shaun]

I believe im right in saying universal carriers were being weld at the same time as riveting production was going on - it was decided to keep riveting the majority of carrier production rather than welding as it would have created to much down time for retooling the factories.

Riveting can produce a far far tighter clamping affect for the size of rivet than bolts, hence there use on boilers, ships etc.

All of the above is "in my opinion" as some one will now blow my comments out of the water !

And boy do i wish the welded universals, the would be so much easier to rebuild !!!!!!!!!!

Richie so glad you are doing the rivets properly.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by ajmac

Lets face it Rivets are so 19th century! Welding rules, british industry just wasn't forward thinking, the T16 showed the way and in the end the UC was welded too. From a restoration point of view rivets do offer an easier route, putting new armour on a welded carrier and having the welds look factory would be more difficult I imagine.

Rivets are superior to bolts, because they swell in the holes and stop any movement between the two parts, if bolted, to get the same rigidity, the holes would have to be reamed to fit the bolts. This was why chassis repairs on lorries, where a riveted spring hanger had to be changed, had to have the holes reamed for special bolts if hot riveting was not possible (I know, been there years ago).