Ta muchly!
Securing ali sheet to mild steel chassis... do I use ali rivets or stainless ones? Does it matter?
Ta muchly!
I would always go for stainless as they are much stronger. 
but if you have lots to do and only by hand go for the alloy ones
Cant see it mattering mate although would recommend roughing up the area thats next to the tube and running a bit of silkaflex down the length, not
only adds strength but can stop vibration too between the panels.
Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs and all that!!
You stripped it already then
Ta
Rich
Noooooo.... it will not be stripped (honest!).
I'm just doing a few bits and bobs to get it through it's MOT!
Thanks for the replies!
ps if you can get MONEL rivets they would be best as the do not react with anything but they do cost more
Cheers Tom!
quote:
Originally posted by RichardK
Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs and all that!!
Rich
if you use an alloy rivet in alloy sheet and steel tube and the joint gets wet it will set up an eltrolosis reaction, this will eat the alloy away in time? you need a chemical barrier eg sickaflex, silicon or a proper barrier paste.
^^^^ there as been a lot of discussion of this - galvanic corrosion - on land rover forums, not surprisingly since most of the dbody work is
alluminium alloy.
consensus was stainless steel rivets react worse with aluminium alloy (Birmabright) ... but we are talking 40 years or so.
For a kit car that sees a lot less mileage and nicer dryer conditions, I wouldn't worry and just use aluminium, unless you plan driving it in the
sea regularly.
There has been a lot of discussion on this... search is your friend! 
To summarise though... the best result is to use 'proper' structural monobolt type ally rivets... and always use jointing compound on every
rivet. also make sure you dont make the holes to big... if you have 4.8mm rivets then you use a 4.8mm drill not 5mm!!
monobolt rivets are not cheap but they are really worth the effort. they are used to hold helicopters together so that says volumes...
Personally i prefer Huck MagnaLok type rivets becasue they can be worked with a standard type rivet gun.
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Securing ali sheet to mild steel chassis... do I use ali rivets or stainless ones? Does it matter?
Ta muchly!