I have this '77 LB F-150 4x4 that I have owned since may '86, it has almost 100,000 miles on it. I had it repainted in '89 with polyurethane.

Rust has since gotten the rear sides and door bottoms. I have a new Ford tailgate, new "top line" (??) bedsides and complete doors (I have done a few measurements, they look like the lines will match, I purchased what the shop said was the best to get if couldn't get OEM). I found new metal inner fender braces for the rear about two years ago ( they go from the fender lip over to the bed and support the fender opening out from the inner bed side ).

Question please .... Anyone here ever used 3/16" stainless steel rivets in arttaching bed sides and inner arches? I have seen two locally, both have a row of rivets along the inner lip of the top of the bedside where it folds over, down the front behind the cab where the new overlaps the old, and a couple arond the rear tailamp area on one truck ... the other owner said he overlapped some of the old that he left and riveted it down where the bumper hid it ... and used some body sealer around the tailamp area.

I'm thinking of 3'16 stainless pop rivets every 1 inch or maybe every 1 1/2" along the top inside the bed and down the front, and behind the bumper area, maybe some around the tailamp overlapping some original metal (still sound there) but onlky 1/8" and where hidden by tailamp chrome surround.

I like the idea of "no welds", any thoughts or comments? I am sure there are many here who have considered it.

Thanks all, I love this forum ... all of them. I have been ignoring this truck lately but this year she's getting that 400 I have in the basement and a facelift.

 

what thickness are the sheets of metal you're riveting together there? I'm sure it will work great actually

 

You will probably be fine. If it were me I would
think about upscaling from pop rivets to
cherry max rivets or regular aluminum rivets.

Pop rivets can fail with vibration and look
a little funky. Get ahold of a rivet gun and
a set of bucking bars and see what you
can do. A good rivet job is a thing of beauty.

With aluminum rivets you would have dissimiler
metal corrosion issues, but probably not for
a long time.

No matter what kind of riveting you do to make
it look sharp be meticulous on your distance
layout. There are some layout tools made
for this and..oh yeah, get a set of clecos.
A cleco is a little two inch spring loaded tool
that holds your work together via rivet
holes while you put in the rivets.

Good Luck!

 

I would definitely use regular rivets if I were you and not shooting into a blind area. you would have a problem with galvanic corrosion using aluminum rivets to fasten steel sheets together not as bad as steel rivets in aluminum but definitely something I wouldnt' wanna have. but you're in luck they do make regular steel rivets. they're not really harder to shoot then aluminum rivets just crank the air hammer up a couple of noches, they're just alot harder to remove when you screw up.

and make sure you lay out your rivet patterns with proper edge distance and rivet spacing :P heh prolly don't matter on a truck. but if you wanna do it right a 3/16th rivet should be 15/32" edge distance and 1 1/8" - 1 1/2" rivet spacing.

make sure you debur your holes too with like a small 100 degree countersing makes things go smoother

only layout tools you'll need are a 6" metal scale or so, a pair of dividers to walk out your pattern, and a fine tip sharpie to mark your hole spots. if you get cleco's which I definitely definitely suggest. and use lots of them then make sure you get one's for a 3/16" hole. and get yourself a pair of cleco pliers a must.
and my last thing is that if you use regular rivets which you should then select a rivet length so that the shank extends 9/32" from the metal before being shot and after you're done the shop head should extend 3/32"

I work sheetmetal on f-16s for a living so I had to respond when I saw rivets enjoy the job

 

Thanks all for the replys.

This is a job that I have been "putting off" for several years now (I drive the truck maybe 1500 - 3000 miles a year). I have collected quite a mass of needed parts.

The rivets I am thinking of using are stainless steel, they are harder to set that aluminum, but I use an air rivet setter that pulls them OK.

I have access to the clecos.

Any other comments are certainly welcomed ............

Thanks again,
Les

 

If your riveting two panels together, you will most likely not see the end of your rust problem...If you don't like the idea of welding in the replacement panels, have you considered gluing them in?

If you don't get all the rust out, it will be back

 

I'm not inserting panels though, I am putting complete new bad sides on that loop over the top and around the front and will completely cut off the old ones before doing so, leaving just enough sound material to attach new ones to the remainder of the bed.

I have new arches (whatever they are called that are above the rear wheels and go over from the inner bed to the fender lip) and new complete doors and a new Ford tailgate and new hardware for most of it. I have new fender opening moldings, I have new rear plastic fender liners, I have new clips to attach the wide molding in the relief along the side (I am eliminating race track chrome, have the correct ends for the wide molding too), have 2 1/2 gallons Hurculiner for cab and bed, (bed has 11 ga steel floor and front wall on top of original already, all under a bed liner, rear bed sides are braced years ago with 1/8" and 1/4" steel tying all together ... no give when tailgate is down...
... and I have sound cab flooring, I stripped carpet out years ago and I got no rust there ... just noise. The Hurculiner will help there.).

I am going to look into the Glue option though ......... point taken. ... thanks

 

I had forgotten I did this thread ..... maybe I should bring it into my recent history.

I know, "world's greatest procrastinator" I guess ..... but then my new stuf is still new, not rusty?

 

You will also get dissimilar corrossion with the stainless rivits. It will attack the steel more so than the stainless. I know when I have replaced a portion of a pipe run with stainless I will be back to cut the mild steel and redo the whole run. But boat owners and chief engigneers "know what they want". Just my $0.02

 

WOW ... I forgot this thread I started in 2004! Did I read that right? Here it is 2021 coming up on November and I'm just now getting here. Sure been a lot of happenings since 2004. In the process, still looking at some mechanical attachment like them big 3/16" stainless rivets, and the panel aheasive too. Same bed sides but they look new ... because they haven't seen the sun shine .... ever. I have inspected them, years ago and pretty recently, but they still have the cardboard protection and I tested the black primer, it's surely EDP (I read that some aftermarket body stuff used to show up with a black laquer primer, not really EDP, but we're good ... as laquer thinner does not phaze them.) . This has been on my mind lately.

To explain the rivet idea better, these are 3/16", maybe I'd even use 1/4" ... SS pop rivets, they are very tough, the'ld get back up washers too. I mikght would use some 1/4" bolts where hidden, they'd be steel. I've even bought a new rivet gun with a bigger power piston to pull harder rivets. Where I would use them would be along the inside bed lip along the rail and up the front behind the cab, every inch or so. I am pretty m,uch sold on the panel adheasive at the rear and below the tail lights, The lower edges where rust pops up would still be supported by the OEM stays and new inner wheel arches from fender opening lip over to the inner bed wall after trimming the partially rusted OEMs over near the in-bed bed fender humps.

I'm looking at this panel adheasive for my own use otherwise too now, I might well combine methods in places. I could fit the bedsides, predrill my holes, then apply the adeasive, clamp, and rivet or bolt as I remove the clamps, spread my rivets, etc ... out maybe every 3 inches?

I know that what I'm thinking of will have rivets / washers / or bolts along the top and down the front pretty much hidden from common observation and out of the weather, the bottoms would be supported like OEM with stays, etc, the wheel arches would support the wheel openings in line, but I'm still thinking out the tail light opening end. I'm still on the fence, but might leave just enough of old tail light surronds in place to slip the new bed side over, glue to, and add a few rivets through where the tail light trim covers them.

My painter will do it all, but if I put these bedsides on, and my new front fenders, and mount my now painted doors, I'll save him time and as you all know ... time is not crucial obviously but I do want to "get there" .... he won't have holes to fill where race track was, we can concentrate on the w-shield and back glass openings, drip edges, and them cab corners. I'm gonna let him prepaint the tailgate, he'll hang the tailgate up and paint it all over and then we'll install the new tailgate together. We are gonna get access to lower cab corners after we cut away the lower front portion of the OEM bed sides below bed level and behind the cab ... but before installing the new bed sides.

I do like those socket drive button head 1/4" screws with loctited nuts. I can probably get them in bulk. I have a bunch, like 20+ ... steel strips, 1" wide, 3/16" thick, each is 4 foot long and right down the center is a row of 9/32" holes on 1" centers. I came to find them discarded one day at my part time job at Advance, they put in new displays. I simply cut the mount plates off the ends, I could use two on each bed rail on the inside ... stiffen them up, be hidden, and just drill my bed sides using them as a guide, every 3rd hole is 3" spacing. I could use some down the front like back up plates too. just not all 4 feet.

Just thinking out loud is all.